The Gambit's Kin
by Alex E. Andras
Summary: After their father’s “untimely” death, Remy is unwillingly given custody of his blind younger sister, Tammi. Can the Institute stand having two thieving LeBeaus under its roof? Cowritten by Jinxeh!
1. Default Chapter

The Gambit's Kin

Summery: After their father's "untimely" death, Remy is unwillingly given custody of his blind younger sister, Tammi. Can the Institute stand having _two_ thieving LeBeaus under its roof? Co-written by Jinxeh!

Note (1): This is written by both Jinxeh and myself (A story written by two fire poker obsessed teens, how will this end?), Jinxeh wrote the prologue and the first chapter.

Note (2): We apologize if we have gotten the accents wrong. We have little or no experience with the Cajun accents, in written form. Eh…it happens. Also, it seems that in many storylines, it is said that Remy was _adopted_ by Jean-Luc LeBeau...but that would make this storyline very difficult to pull off, so we'll just say that the guy is the stupid father, savvy?

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

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Prologue

It was a quiet night, for once. The entire manor seemed silent, as if every sole occupant was sleeping. Tammi knew that that could not possibly ever be the case, as there were always sentries posted around the entire building at all times, but that was what it felt like.

The outside of the ancient house clearly showed how old the building actually was; moss was growing all over the ancient stone pillars, the bricks were crumbling, many of the window panes were smashed on the lower floor. It was not the nicest place to live, down in the heart of Cajun country, but it wasn't like she had a choice. She was there unwillingly, as well as her older brother, because their father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, insisted upon it.

She hated it there. She was unsure if there was anybody in the wretched place from the thieves' guild who actually did like it there, but she was sure that she hated it. If her mother was there, it was likely that they wouldn't be. But their mother had been gone for a long time. She had just left; had just left her two children with their father, and had never come back. Their mother had not been a cruel woman...just a smart one.

She sighed and stared up at the ceiling of her small room, counting the cracks in the crumbling ceiling tiredly, her red-on-black eyes moving from right to left boredly, almost seeming to glow in the strands of moonlight that sifted through the dirty glass of the window next to her bed. Her dark brown hair had lost its reddish tint in the darkness, the moonlight not quiet reaching that. It was in the sunlight that people could see the resemblance between herself and her brother, but in the darkness she was free to be her own person.

Joy.

She sighed again, this time from sheer boredom, and tilted her head to the side, taking in the sight of the rest of her drab room with distaste. It wasn't much; run down with cracked walls, yellowed linoleum flooring, a moldy wooden dresser by the even moldier closed wooden door.

_It is so nice to live in such luxury._

She rolled her eyes at her own sour sarcasm, of which was becoming more and more a habit with her at late, and tilted her head back again so she was staring at the ceiling. It was late; it was probably best for her to get some sleep now. Remy would be charging in there soon enough, waking her up on purpose just for kicks. Joy.

Slowly, she closed her eyes and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

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"_Tammi_!"

Tammi blinked slightly and groaned, rolling over onto her side as she recognized her brother's voice hissing at her. Was it morning already? It felt like she had just gotten to sleep, and he was already waking her up? Damn him...

"Go away..." she mumbled, closing her eyes tightly as if she thought that would help. It didn't, for the next thing she knew her brother's hand was clamped tightly over her mouth as he forcefully rolled her over to her other side.

"Tammi, _wake up_!"

She opened her eyes, blinking the sleep away, and glared right into the matching red-on-black eyes as her sixteen-year-old brother crouched by her bed.

"What do you _want_?" she asked groggily, noting to her surprise that her room was still dark, meaning it was before sunrise. That was typical of him, waking her up just before dawn. Now she would never get back to sleep...

"C'mon, you have to get up!" he said hurridly, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her from the bed. She wrenched her arm from his grip and sat up slightly, propped on her elbows, glaring at him.

"C'est possible pour vous être plus ennuyant ?" she mumbled darkly, causing him to roll his eyes and grab her hand again, pulling her with such force that he actually succeeded in pulling her off of the bed. She landed on the floor with a thump, and she got to her knees, glaring daggers at him now.

"Yes, I is sure dat it is possible for me to be even more annoying, _soeur_, but now isn't de time to be worrying about dat," he said hurriedly, grabbing her upper arms and hauling her to her feet. "Look outside de window." He said anxiously, his eyes looking around the room frantically. As his sister gave him a strange look and slowly made her way to the dusty window beside her bed, he saw her black trench coat and retractable Bo staff (gifts from him) on top of the dresser. He grabbed them quickly and turned to face his sister, who had wiped a clear spot through the dust on the window, and was looking down towards the lawn with a pale face.

"Oh _no_..." she whispered, her eyes wide and fearful.

"You're going to need dese." Remy said, tossing her the coat and staff, which she caught easily. In one fluid motion she pulled the long black coat on, but she did not put the small metal staff in her pocket, as she would normally do. She would need it now.

Her brother was already dressed in brown pants tucked into high training boots, a black short-sleeved shirt, and his brown trench coat. His short reddish-brown hair was mussed, and it was apparent that he had just woken up. His Bo staff, already lengthened, was leaning by the door near the dresser where he had left it.

"We're not actually goin' to fight dem, are we?" she asked him skeptically, as he retrieved the staff and held it tightly, then turning to face her grimly. After all, anyone who had just recently looked outside of their own window and seen a good dozen members of the Assassin's Guild fairly much marching across his or her lawn carrying weapons would be grim, would they not?

"_I_ am, but I want you to stay behind me until we reach de tunnels, okay?" he asked acidly. She scowled and shook her head retracting her bo staff until it was at full length, and twirling it swiftly, bringing the very end to a stop a mere inch from his nose.

"Dammit, Remy! Jus' because I'm on'y twelve, don't mean I'm completely helpless!" she snarled. He responded by sighing and pushing the staff away from his face before turning and jogging to her door, wrenching it open.

"_Don't_ do anything stupid..." he said acidly, running into the hall with her right at his heels. Surprisingly, they were not the only people in the hallway.

"Get down to de main lobby!"

"They're comin' from northwards!"

"Someone check the south tunnels!"

Men were barking orders left and right, running this way and that as they prepared to fight the intruders. No one even noticed the two LeBeaus as they ran between them quickly, their trench coats flapping behind them as they did. No one ever noticed them really, so it didn't come as a surprise.

Even if it sounded like there was a great number of people in the building, part of the Thieves Guild, in reality there were hardly a dozen; a near match to the Assassins that were invading the old decrepit manor. There was a very real chance that they would be overpowered, and then what?

"_Why_ are dey attacking anyways?" Tammi cried as she and her brother bounded down one of the stairways, avoiding running into any rubbing thieves as they did, though once again no one took any notice of them. "I thought de war between de guilds was never actually started, much less pursued!" she said, using a phrase that she had heard her father, and many other thieves, use before.

"Guess de Assassin's thought otherwise!" was her brother's quick reply as they came to a stop at the bottom of the stairway, in the lobby. If they could make a run for the hallway to the left, they could find one of the entrances to the escape tunnels...but unfortunately that way was barred.

"You guessed right, young one!" a man said gleefully, raising the Uzi he held in his hands and aiming right for them.

"_Down_!" Remy shouted, grabbing Tami by her shirt collar front and pulling her down just as the man fired. As they both instantly went into a crouch, a painting across the room, which had been level with their heads, was shot through, the frame splitting and some of the fake metal frame pieces falling and sliding across the floor.

"I tink he means business!" Tammi shouted, her eyes squinted as though somehow that would block out the sound of the gun.

"So do I!" Remy said with a growl, dropping his staff and grabbing one of the fake metal pieces that had slid across the floor and glaring at the man, who had just aimed the gun at them again.

"Buh-bye." Remy said calmly, the piece in his hands now glowing red and white. The man suddenly gasped at this spectacle and lowered the weapon, but before he could do anything the boy had whipped the piece towards him. Luckily for him he was able to jump out of the way, but the piece struck the wall behind him and exploded with such force that it sent him sprawling forwards. He hit the floor unconscious a few feet away from the kids, his gun sliding away across the floor.

"Grab some of de pieces!" Remy ordered, taking some of the metal frame pieces for himself. Tammi knew better than to argue with him, especially when he was in this kind of mood. Frankly, he rather scared her when he was like this. She folded her staff and tucked it into one of her coat pockets, the grabbing three of the metal pieces and getting to her feet, her red and black eyes wide.

What was she supposed to do with these things? She had the same abilities that her brother had, but she was no good with it! The whole thing was new to her, and she couldn't use those powers to save her own life...which was the situation now!

"Remy, what am I supp-"

"No time!" he said quickly, seeing the dark figures running up the front steps through the glass front doors. "Start chargin' and throwin'!"

"But-"

"_Now_!" he bellowed, just as the doors banged open, and three of the assassins ran into, weapons drawn. Judging from the sounds she could hear from upstairs, there were already at least some of them already in the building, and fighting the thieves.

She watched with uncertainty as her brother began to charge some of the pieces in his hands, whipping them at the men, who ducked and rolled away as they hit the walls, managing to evade the fate of their already fallen comrade and pointing their guns just as quickly. Obvious they had no regrets to shooting young children.

Spurred on a by a sudden burst of anger, Tammi held one of the pieces in her hand, concentrating on the kinetic energy she knew was inside of it, surprising even herself when it started to glow red and white, though mostly white as opposed to her brother's normally mostly red powers. She hurled it at one of the assassins at the same time her brother threw on at the same man, and both hit the man's gun. He shouted and tossed it away from himself right before it could explode, the force being bigger than usual what with the additional ammunition inside of it.

Before any of them ever had time to get their bearings, both already had another charged piece in their hands, glaring at them. However, Tammi hesitated, seeing a fourth man crawl in through a broken window and land lightly on his feet, his own Uzi drawn. She screamed, ducking and rolling, just as he fired, narrowly avoiding being hit. Her brother, thankfully, had not been in the line of fire.

She lost her footing as she went to flip back to her feet, her vision temporarily hazy because of the dust coming from the shot-up walls, coughing and sputtering, and landing hard on her knees. She did not even notice she still held the charged piece in her hands, and her concentration was most certainly not on that at the moment, giving the energy free reign.

After whipping another piece at the group at random, forcing them all to duck, Remy looked down at his sister quickly, able to just see her through the dust, and the sight made him gasp.

"Tammi! Throw de piece! You can't hold onto it all day long! It'll explode! Let it-"

But he never got to finish his sentence, for the silver-painted metal did indeed explode in her hand, just as Tammi looked at it. That was the last thing she saw; a bright white and red light, and then the fake silver in shards, rushing towards her widened eyes, before everything went into darkness and excruciating pain lanced through her upper face. It was darkness for her now.

And it was in the darkness that she would forever remain.

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Well? Watcha'll think of that so far? You can tell us, we can cope with constructive criticism… just. Thanks for reading, stay with us, the next chapter will be up ASAP. So Review Dammit! 


	2. The Phone Call

The Gambit's Kin

A note from Jinxeh: Hey ya'll! Hope you're enjoying this story! Toxic-Beetle was right! A story written by two fire poker obsessed teens! How WILL this end? I just want to tell ya'll thanks for your reviews! And like I said in my review Lady Suneidesis, we don't need a beta reader. I typed that prologue in like ten minutes, and was kinda in a hurry because I was leaving my house soon and wanted to get the prologue to Toxic-Beetle before I did. Usually I am very careful about my grammar and spelling, lol. Thanks for the review, though! You too, bkr009! Lata guys!

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

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Chapter 1: The Phone Call

She had to get help, and she had to get help now. There was no way that anybody in the LeBeau family was going to escape this one without losing something in the process. Damn it…and she had thought that her father was working so hard to make their entire family legitimate…what was she talking about? There was no way her father would ever go straight. He was a con man, thief, liar, and cheater. Kind of like his son, and her brother, Remy, except Remy was supposed to be doing better now, up North in that 'Institute' place, settling down in the rich life…

_Well I got news for you, Remy. You thought dat things were bad before? It's worse now, broder! Why did you have ta leave us like dat, anyways?_

Tammi thought this wistfully, wishing her older brother was here now to help out. She hadn't seen him in years, but had gotten a few letters that were addressed to her father, which she stolen from his office and had the housekeeper read to her. Maybe she was a bit too much like him after all…everyone else always said so. They even looked alike, with their bronze and copper red hair, though her own was far darker in color than his was; almost completely brown, with a slight reddish tint. At one point she had had the red-on-black eyes...but not anymore.

Now they were almost pure-white, though if one looked very closely, they could just make out the hazy colors of red and black, as though a thick white film covered her eyes. She wished that, like a film, it could just be removed, but that was not possible.

She and her brother, and most of the thieves including their father, had survived that night when the assassins attacked, but she herself had paid for that dearly with her lost eyesight. Remy had been able to take care of the other assassins quickly enough, so they could get away, but it didn't seem to matter. He blamed himself for telling her to use the powers, and it was only a month afterwards that he left on foot, and had never returned to the country.

Well...except for that one time. He had come back and saved their father from the assassins...but afterwards he had left again, not even bothering to find and say hello to her. Was he really that unsettled by her, she wondered?

Why did her father have to get involved in that scam? And with the mob, of all people? She'd never even been to New York, but she'd heard the rumors about people you could meet there. And now her father had gone and gotten himself involved in drug importing! How stupid could he possibly get? After she found out, she confronted him…and he had lied right to her face! He said nothing was going on! She knew though…the way people talked…she knew.

Everything might have been okay, if it weren't for some old enemies of the LeBeau clan. Those assassins…apparently they held a grudge. Tammi knew very little about the fights between the thieves and assassins, but didn't care to know now either. All of that was over and done with, or at least it was supposed to have been. They had found a new house to live in, more like a manor really, and had left that behind. They must have found out about her father and the drugs…whatever had happened, they decided the strike. They used explosives, and sunk a cargo ship that part of their 'goods' were on, heading for New York. Of course the mob blamed her father, as the assassins were _his_ old enemies. The mob had never been forgiving people. That put her father in danger, and that…

That put her in danger.

She was in deep over her head now.

_Damn dis…I am fifteen years old! I should definitely not have to put up wit dis! Our housekeeper is already dead an' gone, as a warnin'…but dey aren't gonna stop dere… _

No…they wouldn't stop there. When Tammi had stumbled (literally) upon their loyal housekeeper's dead corpse in the alley the other day, she knew the end would come soon. The mob was mad. They had lost a lot of money because of her father's old enemies. Her father had lost a lot of money too…it had, after all, been his ship. Now more than just his money was at stake though. Now it was his life. And, once again, those kinds of things put his daughter into the very back of his mind. She could be next, and he would only fret about himself. No wonder Remy had left. Of course if he was such a great big brother…he would have taken her with him.

However, now he was perhaps the only person she could turn to for help. She had thought briefly of calling up on some old friends of the thieves gild…but quickly drove that thought out of her mind. They had been glad enough to get rid of her father, they probably wouldn't help. Now what was that number again?

She had the number of the Institute, and of his cell phone, stored away in her impressive memory. She had to have a good memory nowadays. She had decided she should keep those numbers just in case of an emergency. Well…she would say that this was definitely an emergency.

"Ah…it was…ah! Got it!" she muttered, walking slowly over to her desk, and reaching for the phone. Her shaking hands found the phone easily, and she lifted it off of the cradle, as though afraid it would explode. Now, to try the cell phone or Institute phone first…the school's phone; his cell might not be turned on, and time was of the essence right now. She dialed with swift fingers, and put the phone up to her ear, crossing her free fingers. She listened to ring, and prayed in her head.

_Please pick up de phone…somebody…anybody…please pick up…_

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"I GOT IT!" Kitty yelled, as she ran to get the phone, which was ringing off of the hook. She had heard it ringing before, but hadn't gotten to it in time, and missed whomever it was that was calling. She had shrugged, and walked away, but a moment later it had begun to ring again. It must have been pretty important, for someone to want to get a hold of someone at the Institute that badly. She hoped it wasn't a telemarketer…she reached the phone and grabbed it off of the cradle, holding it to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked chirpily. "The Xavier Institute, Kitty talking."

There was silence on the end of the line for the moment, as if the apparently frantic person was suddenly shy. Kitty was about to hang up and dismiss it as a prank call, when an urgent voice sudden spoke, sounding rather hurried.

"Dis is Tammi, is Remy dere? Remy LeBeau?" asked an obviously Cajun voice. It was a girl, she thought, and she didn't sound much older than she herself did. But no one had ever called for Remy before, and this girl sounded as if she was from the south, as he was…Rogue might get mad if this was an ex-girlfriend, but it wasn't fair to not tell Remy if he had a call.

"Uh…yea. Like, wait one moment, okay? I'll get him." Kitty said uncertainly. She thought she heard a hurried 'thank you' right before she pulled the phone away from her ear, but shrugged. Gently setting the phone down next to the cradle on the table it sat on, she jogged down the hall and to the rec room. Rogue and Remy had just been in there a moment ago with a few of the other students, so he was probably still there.

"Hey, Remy!" she called upon entering the rec room, and seeing him sitting on the couch next to Rogue, who looked as if she was trying to ignore him but was not really succeeding. Those two were so obvious, but Rogue had to make it complicated, as usual. He turned and looked back at her, red and black eyes curious. "You got a phone call!"

"Eh? Me?" he asked, as though hardly believing it. Who in their right minds would call _him_? Then again…if anybody called him, it had to be important. It wasn't like his family ever called up to say 'Merry Christmas!' or anything like that. Sighing tiredly at that rather humorous, and yet somewhat sad, thought, he got up from the couch, and sidled past Jubilee and Kurt, before turning and walking towards Kitty. There had been a training session earlier, to which he had graciously invited himself, so he was in his usual combat attire; the black shirt, dark pants, kneepads and 'armor', two-finger-fingerless gloves (thieves gloves, Rogue called them), steel-toed boots, and usual long brown trench coat. With his retractable bo staff in his pocket, he could be ready for battle at any time…he just chose to spend his time watching TV instead.

"Thank you, _chere_." He said, as he passed by the preppy brown-haired girl. He walked down the hall and saw the table the phone was usually on, with the phone itself resting next to the machine. He hoped it wasn't a telemarketer…he'd been offered enough timeshares to last him a lifetime. Stopping by the table he sighed again, before picking up the phone, and pressing it to his ear.

"Hello? Dis be Remy. And who might _dis_ be?" he asked with a slight grin. If it was a telemarketer, he could have a little fun and probably manage to get them to hang up first.

"Dis _might_ be the publishers clearing house, and you _might_ have won a million dollars…but really dis is just your kid sister." Said a slightly tired voice. Remy paused for a moment, hardly believing his ears. It couldn't be…but it was. Why on earth would she be calling though? He'd sent her letters separate from the ones he'd sent their father, but she had never replied…

"Tammi? Is dat really you? Why are you…what's wrong?" he asked suddenly, knowing something had to be horribly, horribly, wrong for her to call him. He could just see her pretty little face right now, as she restrained herself from saying something cunning back at him. He missed that face…so like his own, in its own, feminine, way.

"A lot is wrong, dat's what." Tammi said miserably. "De mobs got it out for father dearest, da housekeeper is dead because a them, da isn't doin' anything 'bout it, and-"

"What? Slow down, chere!" Remy said quickly, barely able to understand what she was saying as she was saying it so quickly, and in a whisper too. "De housekeeper was killed by da mob?"

"Yes! Da' got involved wit dem, and bad stuff went down…dey gonna kill us, Remy!"

That sentence sent chills down the older LeBeau's spine. Of course his father got involved with the mob…typical. But now he dragged Tammi down with him? Damn him…

"You sure it's dem, cherie?"

"Of course! Dey left all of de signs…you know how they work, broder. They killed Mrs. Mayne as a warnin'…you know as well as I do dat de mob don't just kill their enemy…dey kill da whole family! Haven't ye ever seen Daredevil?"

"Erm, no…" Remy said, thinking quickly about what he could possibly say.

"Remy…you gotta help. Dere's no one else I can go to, and dey're gonna kill us!" this time, he was sure he heard a faint trace of panic in her voice. Of course he would help her. She was, after all, his kid sister. It was kind of a given. But how would he even get to her? The jet? The professor would hardly lend him the jet without going along too…maybe if…no…wait! Tammy was a mutant, but she had never really gotten the hang of her powers, not after the accident...perhaps that would be enough of an excuse for her to be a student then.

_First I had to save me father from the assassins, and now dis? What am I, the official LeBeau life saver or some'ting?_

He simply sighed, and kept his comments to himself for the moment.

"Where are you?" he asked sharply, seeming to get the point that time was a big factor here.

"At de house, da manor. Where you have been sending de letters to our da'."

"Da? What about de ones I sent you?" Remy asked angrily. He should have known there was no way his father would let Tammi even set her eyes on those letters…and here Remy thought she had been mad at him for leaving. Well, she probably was but now wasn't the time to worry about that.

"What letters?"

"I should have known. How long ago was Mrs. Mayne killed?"

"Yesterday morning…or at least dat's when I found her, in the alley between the house an' garage."

Yesterday morning? Then if it really was the mob, which it had to be, then they weren't going to waste too much time…

"I'll be dere."

"When?" Tammi asked, traces of recognizable relief evident in her light voice.

"I don't know, but soon. I'm takin' a jet, I hope, so I might be dere tonight." He said, trying to figure out what the best plan might be. He had to get her out of there quickly, and their father…he would worry about him later, once he got there.

"Thank you-oh no! He's coming! I here da' coming! I have to get offa da phone now, Remy!" Tammy whispered frantically into the phone, hearing her father's footsteps echoing down the hall quickly towards her room.

"Okay, den. I will be dere, Tammi." Remy said confidently.

"I know you will." She whispered back, before the phone line went dead. After a moment, the dial tone buzzed in his ear, and he held it away from himself. After another moment, he set it slowly down onto the cradle, stopping the tone. This wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.

"Problem?" a familiar voice asked behind him. Remy turned and saw Professor Xavier wheeling down the hall towards him, and curious look evident on his face.

"Problems." Remy corrected darkly.

"Plural? Serious then? I only caught the end of that particular conversation, but it did sound grim." He said, having heard a little more than that actually. A Mrs. Mayne getting killed, and then Remy had to go somewhere…why? To help someone?

"It was." Remy said angrily. Xavier had never seen him this angry…never having really seen him angry before either. "My fool of a father has got my sister involved in some _stupid_ stuff, Professor Xavier. I need to get down to New Orleans now, and get her outta dat house 'fore she gets killed."

"Killed?" Xavier asked in surprise. "It's that serious?"

"Yes, and I need de jet, and if you would come with me…partially 'cause I don't know how to work de stupid machine, and partly 'cause I need de help…"

"You need say no more, Remy. Is your sister a mutant?"

"Yes…" he answered rather hesitantly.

"Well then there is no problem with her staying here. If you need to leave now, we will."

"Thank you, professor. But…if it is all right…we might need some help if de mob is really involved…"

"Invite Rogue, by all means." The professor said, having been wondering all along if he would ask that. Besides, having a little more control over her powers nowadays, and having recovered completely to her overload months and months ago, she could be a large help in this.

"I will meet you in the hangar, Remy." He said, rolling past the LeBeau. First he had to tell Logan about this; he would be a help, he had to leave instructions for Ororo…he turned the corner, and Remy turned to go back to the rec room, but stopped.

"So…where we goin'?" Rogue asked, leaning against the wall by the doorway.

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To Our Reviewers:

(These are just to say thanks, Jinxeh already said all the stuff needed to be said and I don't feel like having to repeat her words)

Lady Suneidesis: Thanks for the review!

bkr009: Thanks for the review!

Jinxeh: You know, it's really weird thanking you for writing your own chapters, you know? But it doesn't feel right if I don't write anything for all our reviewers… Anyway! Rock on great stories!

Blairwitch: Yay! You like our story! It rox, horray for wild stories! Thanks for the review!


	3. Fire

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

A note: I wrote this chapter, which explains it's shortness and the length of time taken to write it was due to depression, stress and writers block, sorry.

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Chapter 2: Fire

Remy jumped off the jet before the ramp had properly lowered. He looked at the rundown manor before him, several tiles were missing from the roof, many of the windows on the ground floor smashed and the front door splintered and buckled. An orange glow came from a few rooms on the first and second floor and smoke billowed from cracked panes and open windows.

"What tha-?" Rogue started as she stepped off the jet. Her sentence was cut short by an explosion inside the manor and two windows on the second floor shattered, showering the ground with glass and flames billowed out from the now vacated window frames.

"What was that?" Rogue asked, Remy looked at the burning building, gaping wordlessly

'Da mob got 'ere first' he thought miserably 'Dad, what have you done?'

"Tammi!" he yelled and started to sprint for the manor. He'd only gone four steps when a hand grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. Remy spun round to see Rogue standing before him.

"Remy, you can't seriously be going in there!" she said, looking up at the burning windows.

"I have to. Tammi might still be in dere. I have to get her out!" he replied, shrugging her hand from his shoulder and running forwards, towards the building.

Another loud explosion shot more glass onto the grounds and Remy put his hands over his head protectively. He skidded to a halt just in front of the front door and looked in. There was no smoke coming from any of the doors he could see, which meant that the fire might not be on the ground floor yet.

'Please Tammy, be on dis floor' he prayed silently. He turned his head slightly and saw Logan and Rogue standing behind him and the Professor beside the jet. He nodded reassuringly to himself and slipped through the gap between doorframe and door.

The ground floor was dark, though an orange glow came from the stairs, the fire hadn't reached the ground floor yet, and Remy hoped Tammi was on this floor.

"Tammi!" he yelled, straining his ears in the hope of hearing his sister's voice over the flames and burning wood

"Check this floor first." Logan told him and Rogue "Be careful." With that he set off down the corridor, opening the first door on the left and going through.

Remy looked over to Rogue, who smiled slightly and walked down the corridor as Logan had done, slipping through a door to the right.

Remy walked right to the end of the corridor ad pulled open the door at there; behind it was a large white and blue kitchen. He scowled slightly to see it was similar to the one at the Thieves Guide, although it was a lot tidier. He stepped in, straining his ears for the sound of his sister or anyone else as he checked several larger cupboards and also beneath the large table that stood to one side.

'Tammi, where are you?' he thought, moving to a door within the kitchen. He opened it, and any hopes of Tammi being within there were diminished when two rats scuttled across the pantry floor.

"Dammit." Remy said angrily. He slammed the pantry door shut and the ceiling above gave a low groan.

"Merde." He swore, and edged out of the kitchen altogether. He then turned and entered the next room along.

It was a large study. Papers and books, most with their pages ripped out, scattered the floor, bookcases leaned at unusual angles and two chairs stood, slashed and broken, in the centre of the destroyed room. Close to a bay window, a large desk stood. It was the tidiest and most intact thing in the room. Papers piled neatly and envelopes waiting to be opened sat patiently. On a grand chair behind the green-velvet covered desk slumped Jen-Luc LeBeau, Remy and Tammi's father.

Remy edged towards the desk slowly, as if to make a noise in the unnatural and eerie peace of the room would disturb his father. He didn't need to worry, Jen-Luc's eyes stared blankly forwards and his mouth hung slightly open, both in the shock of facing his murderers.

"Da," Remy whispered, looking at his father "Vous l'avez fait cette fois." He looked to where a knife impaled the eldest LeBeau's chest and his shook his head, anger quickly welling up inside him.

"Vous avez apporté ceci sur vous-même" he told the corpse "Et vous l'avez apporté sur Tammi aussi bien." He slammed his fists onto the desk in anger and was surprised by the loud groan from the ceiling and a rain of white plaster.

'That can't be good' he thought as he backed away from the desk, his eyes fixed on the ceiling above it, where it sagged slightly. As he reached out to grasp the doorknob the ceiling groaned again and more plaster rained down. A small boom sounded elsewhere as another window exploded from the heat as Remy opened the study door and slipped back out, closing the door and then turning to face Logan and Rogue.

"You don't want to go in dere." He told them "My Da's in dere, and de ceilings about to collapse." Rogues eyes went wide as Logan pushed past Remy and looked inside the room.

"We've checked all the rooms." Rogue said, "She's not on this floor."

Remy cursed silently at that information. If Tammi wasn't on this floor she'd either been taken by the Assassins Guild or was further upstairs, close to the fire. He didn't know which he preferred.

"We need to check upstairs!" he said, urgency in his voice and then rushed down the corridor.

Remy had just put his foot on the first step when a series of short thumps and bangs came from down the hall. They all turned towards the direction of the noise

"Must have been the study ceiling." Rogue said after a moment

"We need to get Tammi before the house collapses or burns." Remy replied and continued to climb up the stairs.

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Translations:

Vous l'avez fait cette fois – You did it this time

Vous avez apporté ceci sur vous-même – You brought this on yourself

Et vous l'avez apporté sur Tammi aussi bien – And you brought it onto Tammi as well

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To Our Reviewers:

Lady Suneidesis: Yay! Thanks for the review!

EvilWhiteRaven: I answer to your questions, Remy is 19, Rogue is 17 and Tammi is 15. This may be a Romy fic, it depends.

Jinxeh: Happy Birthday! I forced myself to finally get rid of the writers block! You're right; Tammi beating him would have been an interesting way for him to die… That does suck, evil people not letting you update!

Lulu belle: Wow… I think you like this! I like that phone call bit too!

LucreziaNoin86: Thanks for the review!

RomyFan101: Like with EvilWhiteRaven, this might be a Romy fic, you'll have to wait and see!

Pyromaniac: No! Don't die! I know it's taken me to ages to update and I'm sorry!

Wondergal Jubilee and Virgo: Thanks for the review. About the update ASAP… don't kill me, k?

Danzin mushrooms: Thanks for the review!


	4. Rescued?

The Gambit's Kin

A note from Jinxeh: Hey everyone! I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as we are enjoying writing it! This chapter is written by myself, with Toxic-Beetle as my beta! Thank you all so much for your reviews! But to Shockz: You stated that the time jump from the past to the present in this story was not clarified, when actually it was. In the prologue Tammi had told Remy that just because she was only twelve, that did not mean he had to treat her as such, or something along those lines. In the next chapter, when it is apparent that things have skipped ahead, her thoughts briefly let on to the fact that she thinks since she was only a fifteen-year-old kid, she shouldn't have had to deal with any of the current goings on. So really, about three or so years have passed. It's okay, it was an easy thing to miss, lol. Thanks, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

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Chapter 3: Rescued? 

"Tammi!" Remy called as he ascended the staircase leading up to the second story of the house, almost coughing on his own words. On this level the smoke was fierce, though so far there were no signs of flames from what he could see as he stepped into the main hallway. "Where are you?"

"Remy, be careful ya idiot!" Rogue called after him, climbing the stairs at a somewhat slower pace than he had; nearing the top he had taken them three at a time. It was kind of strange, seeing someone whom she had assumed was alone in the world acting so concerned for another person. It was also somewhat justifying to know he had a heart and she had to stop herself from turning around to Logan and saying something along the lines of "I told you so!"

Logan was having a harder time of it than the others, though he followed them anyways as they made their way down the hallway to the left, blinking as the billowing smoke stung at their eyes. His advanced senses were usually a splendid thing for him to have, but now his nose was overwhelmed by the stench of smoke everywhere. Luckily for him he had his healing factor, allowing him to breathe at a normal pace anyways. Rogue had pulled part of her dark shirt over her mouth and nose. Remy did not seem to care.

Rogue stopped and opened a door to her right, then screamed and shut it just as quickly, seeing the bright and hot flames licking along the doorframe inside.

"Let's not go in there..." she said weakly, shaking her head and stepping away from the door. Around them the whole house was groaning, floorboards and support beams growing weak as the fire chewed through them, charring and blackening them.

"Cajun, this is a lost cause." Logan exclaimed, blinking his eyes a bit and only just able to see the outline of the young man in front of him. "We hafta turn back 'fore we get killed!" he said, deciding to not mention the fact that it they stayed in the house much longer their lungs could collapse and fail because of the amounts of smoke that they inhaled, even if it was sparingly.

"I can't leave Tammi!" Remy shouted back angrily, his volume more due to the sounds of the house that were overwhelming him than because of his anger, though that was most certainly a small part of it as well. Logan and Rogue, both seeing no hope for the situation, opened their mouths to protest with him but then shut them just as quickly, Professor Xavier's voice ringing clearly through their minds as he contacted them telepathically.

I'm sensing another live signature in the house, you three. I cannot tell who it is, only that their mind is frantic at the moment. They are near the back, in the left wing. Second floor. If you can get to it, then do so quickly. If not then get out of that house _now_; that section is burning quickly.-

Remy's face paled at that message and he shook his head in disbelief. What did he mean by that, that the section was burning quickly?

"Tammi..." he muttered, gritting his teeth. As Rogue lifted a hand to put on his shoulder comfortingly he suddenly shook his head and turned, running down the corridor they were in, the coattails of his trench coat flapping behind him.

"Remy!" Rogue exclaimed angrily. She started to run after him but Logan instead looked up as the ceiling above them groaned and started leaning in at a dangerous rate. He swore and grabbed onto one of the girl's covered arms, pulling her back in the opposite direction as the ceiling suddenly gave an almighty screech above them. They both moved away just in time to avoid the flaming plaster and crumbling wooden beams and floorboards falling down and smashing to the floor before them, forming a solid barrier of fire and debris.

"No!" Rogue screamed, her mind racing frantically. How on earth were they supposed to get to Remy now? And unless there was a second staircase, how was he supposed to get back to them?

"C'mon, gal!" Logan shouted, pulling her away forcefully and heading back towards the stairs. "We have to get outta here!"

"What about Remy?" Rogue protested, dragging her feet, though really her own slim frame was no match for him, he dragged her away as if she were nothing.

"The Cajun can take care of himself!" was his response as he forced her down the stairs. "He's on his own now!" he said. He did not mean to be cruel about it, even if that was how it sounded to Rogue, that was just the way it was. There was no way even he would chance trying to catch up with him now, but Remy was smart, and determined. Logan was positive he would be all right...

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There was fire all around her, but the young Cajun girl sitting in her room on the floor hardly paid any heed to it. Even though she was blind she knew it was there; could feel the head radiating off of it, could hear the groans and creaks of the dying house around her. She was in a daze, her blank white eyes wide and fearful, her right arm clutching her left right above the elbow, her left shirtsleeve soaked in her own blood from her upper arm and down. She was on her knees on her musty red carpeting, facing towards the dead man by the door of her room.

She had killed him.

That most certainly could not have been a good thing, as far as the mob had to be concerned...but the man had had it coming, storming into her room like that, just as she was putting on her black trench coat; she had been expecting her brother at any time then. She had only had one sleeve of her coat in, her other arm had been barren of it.

It was lucky for her that she had had at least some training in fighting, which had taken place back when she could see. She supposed it must have stuck with her. She had heard the man barge into her room, had been able to pinpoint where he was exactly as he advanced on her and, after deeming that it was not her father or brother (he had spoken to her, telling her not to move "or else"), had attacked first, whipping out the knife she always had hidden in her boot and stabbing aimlessly in front of herself until she felt the blade of her knife sink into something soft. Judging from the thump she had heard when he had hit the floor, she had to say she had gotten him good, but not before he had gotten her. The man had managed to stab her once on her arm that was not yet in the coat. Now, she was no doctor, but at the rate it was bleeding she had to say it was a serious cut.

She had no idea where her father was; the last she had seen of him that early evening was in her room, right after she had called her brother. He had stormed in, demanding to know if she had been on the phone, and if so whom had she been calling? She had responded that she had not been on the phone, and even if she had been it would have been none of his business anyways. He had retaliated by calling her a little liar, and she had responded to that by calling him a few names not to be repeated, and then adding that he should go to a very unpleasant place before he became too angered and sulked out of her room. It was so nice to live with such a loving family...

Now she was alone, in a house that was undoubtedly burning, not knowing where her father or anyone else was, bleeding, and becoming scared out of her mind because of what she had just done. She had never killed anyone before, and had never felt the need to. And yet there she was, sitting in her room with a wounded arm, a corpse in front of her. She knew the man to be dead; she had quickly checked his pulse after the first minute.

She was a killer now.

She whimpered and shook her head, letting go of her wounded arm and ignoring the pain as she pulled her other coat sleeve on so the bloodied mess was not visible. She was not sure why, but having it on made her feel better. She did not want to die feeling uncomfortable, God forbid. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Remy had given her that coat those few years ago. It had been too big for her at first, but now she was starting to fit into it better. It pained her to know that now she would never get the chance to fully grow into it.

She could not, and would not, get up and try to escape from her room now, even though she could feel the intense heat of the flames all around her. Her fear kept her right where she was, sitting by her desk by the window she knew to be there, even if she could not see it. She was too afraid to go out into the hall; she had no idea where the flames in other places were. She would just get herself killed even quicker that way.

Instead she took one deep shuddering breath, her cheeks glistening in the bright light of the flames around her because of the salty tears that streamed down them. She turned and crawled under her desk, as there was no chair there to keep her out, using only her good arm to support herself. Under the desk it was only a few degrees cooler, if any; her mind could have been playing tricks on her. She tucked her body into the smallest position she could possibly make and huddled there, waiting for the end.

Remy had not come for her, and if he had it had not been in time. She was going to die, before ever seeing him alive again. She was quite sure that this was the end for her.

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Remy nearly stumbled as he rounded a corner in the upstairs hallway, dodging around fallen and burning debris and coughing heartily from the fumes that were wafting to him. Most of the area of the house he was in was on fire; he had to run around and sometimes jump over the flames. But still, he refused to give up. He would never have been able to look himself in the mirror again had he left the house without knowing if his sister was alive or dead inside. Now that their father was gone, it was Remy's job to keep her safe...not that their father had done that great of a job in the first place.

"Tammi!" he shouted in between coughs, his red eyes, which looked like something straight from the devil himself, burning as the smoke stung at them. His vision was watery because of it, and that did not help him get around the flames. He leaned against a solid part of the wall for a moment with one hand, his other pounding his chest as he fought to breathe, his eyes closed tightly and his handsome young face set into a grimace. He wasn't going to be able to last like this for much longer, he knew...

_Where de 'ell is she?_

He sighed and gritted his teeth, pushing away from the wall and stumbling down the hall, one arm in front of his lower face, as though that would somehow magically ward off the smoke all around him. He wasn't sure where Logan and Rogue were but was sure they were fine; Logan was a strong guy, and he wouldn't let anything happen to Rogue anyways.

"Où êtes-vous, Tammi?" he whispered, stopping in the middle of the burning hallway and slouching his shoulders. He could not hear anything above the sounds of the dying house, so even if she had been calling to him there was a chance he might not have heard her. He was just about to turn around again, to double-check when he saw something strange through a halfway-open door a little way's down the hall; the upper half of a middle-aged man, lying inside of a room, his eyes open and glossy, staring up at the ceiling in the room ahead.

"Que l'enfer..." he said in a hushed whisper, making a dash for the door. The man lying inside was blocking it from opening any further, so Remy pushed against it with all of his might, sliding the undoubtedly dead body away from the door and pushing the door all of the way open, entering the room. Remy hardly spared the corpse a second glance; the man's dark suit and bloodied knife in his hand told him he was not someone he would miss.

He could tell he was in her bedroom now; there was a desk and a bed, a dresser and a wide window. Her room here was not as untidy as her room back at the old manor, but it was apparent that Jean-Luc LeBeau had not been big on the comfortable furnishings either.

What alarmed him the most however was the blood he glimpsed on the dead man's knife, which he still held clutched in his hand, the smaller knife sticking out of his chest (which reminded him so much of how he had found his father that it almost made him sick) and the fact that the bedroom was halfway engulfed in flames, mainly near the bed and dresser, and also by another door to the left; apparently a bathroom, where the fire had probably found it's way into, and then from there into her room.

"Tammi!" he bellowed, cupping his hands over his mouth to amplify his call. The room was spacious in a way and was shaped like a lopsided L because of the dormer window, so there was a chance she was hiding somewhere, or _lying_ somewhere...no, he wouldn't think of that! "Tammi, where are you?"

He waited for a moment, standing in the doorway of the room before he gave up, as no one answered him straight off. He was about to run out of the room to check the others near it when he heard it, a faint whimpering sound. He spun around again quickly and searched the room with his widened eyes, sure that he had not imagined the sound and then heard the whimper again, the noise directing his gaze towards the large desk in the corner by the window. And there, barely visible under the desk...

"Tammi!" he sighed in relief, jumping over the dead man's body and running over to the desk, crouching by it; all done in a smooth fluid manner that might make most wonder if he had somehow developed powers similar to that of Quicksilver's during the course of the last five minutes.

His younger sister was curled up under the desk, her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her knees, rocking back and forth silently, her eyes closed tightly. The moment that Remy put a hand on her shoulder she suddenly seemed to snap out of her reverie and gasped, her eyes snapping open and revealing their blank whiteness, immediately making him wince. As if he needed any _more_ reminders about that...

"Tammi, come on! Get outta dere!" Remy said urgently. His sister turned her head to look at him and blinked once, frowning.

"R-Remy?" she asked doubtfully. "Dat be you?"

"_No_, it be de Publisher's Clearing House! You've won a million dollars!" Remy said with a grin. A moment later his sister had thrown herself into his arms, hugging him around the middle with such force that it about squeezed what little good air that he had out of him.

"Sage-âne..." she muttered, making him grin again as he stood up gently, pulling her with him as she let go of his middle. "Where's Da?" she asked, with a hint of distaste in her voice. Remy chose to not answer her directly, and changed the subject to a more humorous note, despite the current situation.

"Don' say such tings, or Remy wash your mouth out wit' de soap." He said with a smirk, looking down at her sister, though she stared blankly ahead. She did not comment that he had not answered her question. She had grown considerably during the course of the last few years and was now, at fifteen, a fairly pretty young woman. He noticed she wore the coat he had once given her as a present, but decided not to comment about it. He had figured that she hated him for leaving her for so long, so why should she have worn it? Perhaps she had no been angry with him...for more than just that...but now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

"How much a' de house is on fire?" Tammi asked nervously as they stepped over the body by the door, Remy not looking at it and Tammi incapable of doing so anyways. Remy kept one hand on the small of his sister's back and she kept a hand on his shoulder, allowing him to guide her from the room. She kept her injured arm to her side, hiding even her bloodied hand in her sleeve. When she had first moved into this house, Mrs. Mayne had allowed Tammi to keep a hand on her shoulder as they walked through the house the first time, so Tammi could count steps from room to room in an effort to know it better.

Good old Mrs. Mayne...a strict and yet loyal friend to Tammi herself, only to now be dead, killed by the people that were once thought to be business associates of Jean-Luc LeBeau. She had not deserved that. She had lost her husband sometime before either of the LeBeau children had been born, and yet had kept her married name anyways as a tribute. The only consolation that Tammi could find now was that possibly her housekeeper was finally with her husband again.

"Most of it." Remy replied shortly, signaling to Tammi that that meant it was not good. "De stairs, de main ones, are blocked. Where is de next stairwell?" he asked urgently, hurrying along the corridor and helping his sister dodge around the debris and flames. By now the smoke was too thick and he was virtually blind in it.

"Next stairwell?" Tammi asked in alarm, stopping dead in her tracks, her blank eyes wide. "There is no next stairwell, dere's only dat one on this side! De on'y oder stairs are in de right wing!" she said frantically.

"Le condemner!" Remy swore angrily, then grabbing the girl's hand (luckily it was her uninjured one) and running down the hallway, pulling her along with him. "Where's de pool outside?"

"De pool?" Tammi shouted in confusion, only aware that someone was pulling on her hand, making her run. Her injured arm was swinging this way and that, paining her to the point of almost having to bite her lower lip to keep from crying out, and the smoke around her was polluting her lungs. Her head felt like it was spinning, and her scalp was giving her that familiar pins and needles feel as she grew dizzier. "Er...twenty steps from my bedroom door...turn right...five steps to spare room...ten steps across that room...the window...the window looks down upon it..." she answered in a meek shout, aware that they had stopped running. Judging from the fact that her brother was not saying anything, she took that to mean that he was staring at her in surprise.

"What? Not like I ever got to _see_ it!" she said defensively. Remy sighed and looked up the hallway they were in; the same one from her room. She had said to turn...right! He did so, still pulling her along in the same manner until he stopped in front of another door, seemingly the one she had described. Coughing on the smoke around him he reached out through the haze and found the doorknob with his fingertips, but when he tried to twist it...it was locked.

Instead of trying another door and testing their luck, he did the only rational thing he could think of, lifting one leg and slamming it forward, kicking the door open. The top part broke from the hinge and the door slammed open, hanging on two hinges now.

"What did you just _do_?" Tammi cried as he pulled her inside of the room, which was somewhat hazy, but almost smoke-free; the fire had not reached in there yet. "Did you just break da _door_?"

"No, Remy asked it to move very nicely, and it did by itself." Was his quick reply, with perceptible sarcasm. It was not meant to be mean, he just invoked sarcasm in many of his words, and had been doing so for as long as Tammi had known him...which was her whole life.

Remy however, had just discovered what was in the room. And what there was was not to his liking. This room was apparently used for storage; lawn chairs and long abandoned pool toys were scattered around many boxes, most likely from the family that had lived there before his father had moved in. He shuddered to think that maybe the previous owners of the house had not left willingly. When Jean-Luc LeBeau had wanted something, he had gotten it no questions asked. But in the corner was what frightened him; an old rusty outside barbeque grill with a double-barrel propane tank fixed into the bottom, and held there with metal sidings and screws.

Yes, propane tanks.

In a room soon to be engulfed in fire.

"Oh. ...that ne peut pas être bon..." Remy muttered, wondering whose bright idea was it to keep an old grill in one of the top rooms. Then again, like said before, who knew who had lived in the building before Jean-Luc LeBeau? It could have been a family.

Tammi felt him let go of her hand as they neared the window and then waited as he edged the rusted and painted frame open. A gust of fresh air blasted into the room as he did and they both breathed it in relief; both had been felling weighted down by the smoke in their lungs, though they weren't anywhere close to being fully recuperated yet. She would be shocked if later, should they survive; they were left without some minor breathing problems. Hopefully her brother knew a good doctor.

Remy looked back once and paled, seeing the flames from the hallway already edging into the room and catching the boxes and various trinkets near the door on fire. It spread quickly as the cardboard burned swiftly. He looked out of the window just as swiftly, seeing the pool below. It had not been cleaned for some time and the water below was murky green and grey, not transparent at all...but when he looked back and saw the flames almost reaching the grill he sighed, his mind made up. By now flames blocked off the way to the hallway, it was their only option.

"Tammi, can you swim well?" he asked edgily.

"Ah...if I have to." She answered edgily, starting as he grabbed her hand.

"Trust Remy, you have to!" he ordered, making both of them back away for a couple of steps. "When I say three, you run with Remy and we jump when I say to!"

"We _what_ when you say to?" Tammi exclaimed. She might not have been able to see in front of her, but she knew very well that there was a window in front of her. He was going to get her killed, she just knew it...

"One!" Remy shouted, squeezing her hand tightly as his eyes narrowed, both in concentration and because of the smoke stinging them.

"You're gonna get me killed..." Tammi moaned, though she stood at the ready anyways. She figured that maybe it was bad karma for her, for...for _killing_ that man...

The flames were only a few feet from the tanks and the grill.

"Two!" Remy said, his voice steady now.

"I shoulda stayed under dat desk..."

The flames were only a foot or so away now, and the metal on the tanks was beginning to become very hot, very fast.

"Three!" Remy shouted, running forwards and for once not having to drag his sister with him; she ran with him on his own accord. As they reached the window he suddenly pulled her behind him, both of his hands now gripping hers as he miraculously did not noticed the half-dried blood on hers, just as the flames hit the rubber nozzle atop the tank and melted it. He jumped out of the window, pulling his sister with him just as the gas leaked from the top, hitting the flames.

They had just found themselves falling through the air when the first tank blew back in the room, shattering the glass and the wood from the windowsill behind them and throwing debris and wooden pieces of paneling and burnt boxes towards them through the newly created hole in the house's wall. It caused a chain reaction with the tank next to it, and before Tammi and Remy were halfway down to the pool that one blew too, with similar results. This was obviously too much for the burning building; half of the second floor collapsed inside of the house, and the ceiling to the room, which had long caved in after the first blast, fell through along with it.

As burning debris and wooden pieces fell among them, the two surviving LeBeau's plunged into the deep end of the murky and unclean pool below with an almighty splash, the force of it wrenching their hands apart. Underwater, the force of her injured arm almost getting wrenched out of its socket was too much for the girl, and she screamed in pain- but since she was underwater it was little more than a muffled gurgle.

Still, she managed to resurface first, her head hitting the somewhat smoky air above the water and her mouth open as she gasped for air. Her dark hair, now an even darker hue from the dampness, clung to her scalp and neck like some sort of paper mache might.

"R-Remy!" she gasped, coughing between each syllable. She could not see him yet but headed for the pools edge anyways which was, luckily, only a few feet away from her. Around the left side of her body the water around her was growing murky and darker in a reddish-bronze color as her wound was somewhat cleansed, though it stung horribly from rather stale chlorine. She had to hope she would not get an infection...

She finally managed to reach the pool's edge and lifted herself up and out with her good arm, almost slipping but managing to crawl up onto the cement anyways. She turned and fell onto her back, her limbs splayed spread-eagle style as she fought for breath, gasping and panting as the air outside, which was not as smoky as that inside but close enough, clouded her lungs and stung her already ruined eyes. Her left hand hung over the side of the cement and hovered right over the water; she was oblivious to the steady fall of small dark droplets of red blood running down her arm and through her fabrics of her trench coat, flowing along her fingertips in streams and dropping into the water below them.

She was oblivious to most around her, actually. To her, she did notice that suddenly her hearing was growing dimmer but she did not care. She was going unconscious and she embraced it; it relieved the pain from her arm in a way that she was grateful for. She was mostly gone in that way when Remy, having surfaced on the other side of the pool, crouched over her and shook her shoulders roughly, ignoring his own sorry and soggy state.

"Cajun!" Logan called, running over with Rogue right at his heels. They had seen the two jump from the window and had hardly held out any hope after the room they had been in exploded behind them. Relieved as they were when they saw them land in the pool, it now appeared that one of them wasn't doing so well. Tammi LeBeau's blank eyes fluttered for a moment and then closed before either of the other two mutants had caught sight of them.

"Remy, she's bleeding!" Rogue said in shock, pointing to the blood running down the girl's hand as they reached her and crouched too. Remy's face paled to an even more unhealthy shade and he made to roll up his sister's sleeve but Logan stopped him with one hand and a shake of his head.

"No, ya could just damage it more." He said gruffly, standing up. "Pick her up; we need to get her to the Institute..." he said, not even having finished his sentence before Remy had picked her up, trying to be gentle but not really succeeding as he had not really had to do that before with some tenderness, but recovering quickly. He and Logan set off at a run, heading towards the jet, but Rogue hung back for a moment.

She stood up and looked back towards the flaming house, the orange lights and flames reflecting in her bright green eyes. It was a lost cause now; it would be nothing but ashes soon enough. Shaking her head she turned and dodged around various pieces of flaming debris on the cement, running after the other two and leaving the house to burn, burn along with the legacy of the infamous LeBeau Clan, and burn along with the remains of Jean-Luc LeBeau.

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Crappy ending to this chapter. Meh.

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Translations: (There seems to be a lot of swearing going on when French is used in this story...)

"_Où êtes-vous, Tammi_?" means, "Where are you, Tammi?"

"_Que__l'enfer.._." means "What the hell..."

"_Sage-âne..."_ means "Wise-ass..." (Couldn't resist)

"_Le condemner_!" means, "Damn it!"

"_Oh. ...that ne peut pas être bon..._" means "Oh. ...that cannot be good..."

Also, I have an account on fanartcentral-dot-net and one of my pictures on there is "Tammi LeBeau gives up hope", illustrating a scene from this chapter. Check it out, and my other works too if you want! Toxic-Beetle here also has an account on that site! She has a link on her bio, and by checking out her pictures you will most likely see the comments I left, so you can just click on my fanartcentral screen name to see my stuff, if it's easier. Thanks! Review!

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To Our Reviewers:

Lady Suneidesis: I apologies for the short chapter. I have not been able to write a long chapter for any of my stories. I will eventually sort that out! Yay! They found Tammi!

Wondergal Jubilee and Virgo: Wow. Updatedness is a great word! Yay! I live!

Jinxeh: Yay! You made me so happy saying that my chapter was awesome! Your chapters are better though! If you review this… I should review too for your chapters… but then I'd confuse myself answering my own reviews! I take it from all that that you had a good birthday, apart from everywhere being packed! I hope you've been able to get your trench coat! Yeah, I apologize for the spelling mistakes in the last chapter. I wanted to update so I was speedwriting and didn't check it over. That picture is awesome! And this chapter was cool by the way, so much fire!

Shockz: Glad you like this story. Like Jinx said, about three years have passed between the prologue and first chapter.

Silverbells: Hmmm… I'll let you decide how much trouble Tammi got into for yourself. 

Crazycatluver: We've updated! Hopefully the next will be on its way soon to (depends how much I can get on the pc)


	5. The Institute

The Gambits Kin

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

A note: Chapter was written by me, and is longer than any other chapters I've written (except for one)!

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Chapter 4: The Institute

Bobby kicked at the ground, leaning against one wall; he threw out an arm and iced up a small puddle of oil some ten metres from him.

"Man, I'm so bored." He grumbled under his breath. There was a murmur of agreement from the others hanging around in the hangar with him.

"Nothing interesting ever happens these days." Jubilee mumbled. She was fiddling with the one sleeve of her yellow jacket absentmindedly, staring off into space.

"Rogue and Remy got to go off on a mission with Logan and the Professor," Bobby moaned "When are we going on one?" There was another murmur of agreement and many eyes fell to where the X-Jet would normally be when the students of Xavier's were bored out of their minds in the hangar.

"We could do with some action around here," Tabitha said "Nothing interesting has happened in a good while."

It was not long after Tabitha's last comment was made that the X-Jet landed in the hangar. The students hanging around by there looked up, hoping to be the first to be told what had happened on the mission.

When the ramp for the jet dropped, Xavier was the first to come off. He looked briefly at the young mutants but it was obvious his mind was currently elsewhere.

When Rogue came down with Logan, the jaws of the young mutants dropped.

Both were covered in soot and their faces were nearly hidden beneath the dust and smoke from their mission, they looked at the surprised group wearily and nodded their heads slightly, in a way to show that they didn't want them to worry, but made the group more so. It was Remy who shocked the mutants most.

He had exited from the jet last. His clothes were faintly ash covered and torn, his hair a slight frazzled mess and he looked as though he had just come out of an ash pit. In his arms he held the slight figure of a girl protectively in his arms. She wore a black trench coat, almost identical to Remy's., but darker in colour. Her legs were draped over his one arm and her back supported by the other, both Remy and the girl in his arms had the look that they had come from an ash pit, making a short pit stop by a hose first. The girls bloody left arm hung limp at her side and she was the palest of the mutants who had exited from the jet, though Remy was not far behind her. He was grim faced and was looking down at the girl sadly, speaking to her in rapid French which the others could not catch, let alone understand.

Rogue walked over to him and gently took one of his elbows, and pulled it gently, her eyes on the girl in Remy's arms

"Come on Remy, we'll take her to the infirmary." She said Remy looked at her, silent grief creeping into his eyes and nodded, following Rogue from the room. Logan followed quickly behind them with Xavier. The door to the hangar closed, leaving the young mutants in stunned silence.

"What was that?" Bobby asked

"Was that, like, Remy's caring side?" Kitty asked, still slightly shocked at the concern she'd seen in the Cajun's eyes

"Seriously, I need to know what happened." Evan whistled, standing up from where he'd been sitting on the floor and stretching "Anyone else care to know?" the others nodded and they all left the hangar.

X

"Lay her down here." Hank instructed, patting the medical bed in front of him with a large, blue furred arm. Remy nodded and gently laid Tammi down, taking care not to brush her injured arm. Rogue watched silently, she had never seen Remy so caring for someone really; Tammi had not woken up the entire trip, despite Remy talking rapidly to her in French. Each moment the girl had refused to answer Remy's aimless rambling, the more worried he had become. As Remy stepped back from his sister to allow Hank to look her over, Rogue steeped up to him and placed a gloved hand on his trench coat arm.

"It's not ya fault Remy." She said quietly. The Cajun didn't answer, keeping his eyes on his younger sister as his slipped an arm around Rogue's waist. It hurt him to see his sister like this, like unconscious she seemed more helpless than she really was, none of this would have happened if he hadn't forced her to fight…

"Remy?" Rogue's voice snapped him fro his thoughts and he looked at her and then Hank, who was cutting the left sleeve of Tammi's trench coat carefully

"How did this happen?" Hank asked again, the wound on the girls arm was pretty deep, something that could not have happened accidentally

"I don't know." Remy replied tiredly "I don't know if she was like this before I got to her. Or it could have been when the tanks exploded…"

"Tanks?" Hank asked, gently lifting the girls bleeding arm up and inspecting it

"Propane tanks." Remy filled him in "There was a gas barbeque in the room we escaped through."

Hank nodded and gently laid the girls arm back down so he could get out some bandages and medical string. Turning back, he nodded his head to acknowledge the presence of Logan and Xavier before once again focussing his attention to his patient.

"I don't think it had anything to do with the explosion." He told them all as he started to stitch Tammi's arm "The wound is to straight and there aren't any pieces of wood or anything present. She'll be coughing for a couple of hours after she's woken from the amount of smoke she's breathed in, but otherwise she should be fine." He broke of the thread and started to wrap the girl's arm

"I want to check you over as well." He told Remy and Rogue "There's no telling how much damage the smoke's done." The two nodded, Remy relaxing slightly now he knew his sister was going to be all right. He just had the problem of telling everyone she was blind, but he could deal with that problem when it presented itself.

X

Tammi woke up with a low groan and shifted slightly, getting accustomed to the dull throbbing in her left arm. She groaned again and was startled when a person spoke to her.

"Tête somnolente bonjour," a person said in French.

"Remy?" Tammi answered, unsure if it was her brother she was really hearing.

"Non! C'est vendeur de magasin, vous parlant à trois le matin!" her brothers voice replied, Tammi pinpointed him to be close to her right shoulder and turned her head in that direction.

"Very funny," she said in English, scowling slightly "Is it really three in da morning?"

"Oui." Remy replied, "You're impossible, waking up when some of us are trying to sleep."

"You always used to get me up at impossible hours in the morning." She mumbled, and then looked at him with her sightless eyes. "Is there anyone else in here?" she asked

Remy shook his head, and then remembered his sister was unable to see that, cursing himself mentally he replied softly

"No sister, it is only us. Everyone else is sleeping."

"Everyone else is sane then." Tammi muttered, making Remy smile. He looked up from his sister and glanced around the silent med-lab. Monitors from computers flashed and beeped aimlessly, otherwise the room was quiet. He turned his head back to Tammi. She lay silently, looking up at him with blank eyes, he knew she was unable to see him, but the way she stared at him really made it seem like she was trying to read his facial expression

"Où sommes-nous?" Tammi asked, the silence making her feel uncomfortable. Where ever they were, it smelt clean, cleaner than the manor ever had, and the one of the Thieves Guild, it was also deathly silent and made her mind wander briefly back to the night she had lost her sight…

"We are in the infirmary of the Institute," he explained to her "It's a school for mutants, Tammi, they help you control and strengthen your powers, and keep you safe." As soon as he had said the last bit, Remy felt a prang of guilt. The mansion was a place to go to stay safe, if he had taken her with him when he had first come here, she wouldn't be lying on a bed in the infirmary, they would neither know, nor care of there fathers' going-on's with the Assassins Guild, or any of his other lines of business, or know that he had been murdered.

As though she was reading his thoughts, Tammi asked suddenly

"What about da?"

Remy swallowed at her question, he did not know why, but it had suddenly become hard to answer the question which he had gone through in his head over a hundred times before Tammi had woken, after several moment of silence he replied

"Il est Tammi mort. La guilde d'Assasins s'est assurée de celle" he told her. Tammi nodded, then turned her unseeing gaze once again to her brother

"Est-ce que je suis censé le dire l'ai mérité?" she mused, making her brother laugh. He gently took the girls hand and they talked for a while longer about the school, both happy to be in each other's company once again.

X

A few days later, Remy slowly guided his sister from the infirmary. She was wearing his glasses, by her own choice rather than his, saying she felt more comfortable knowing that they others weren't staring at her because she was blind and trying to help her like she was an invalid. Remy had laughed at her then and passed over a pair of dark-lensed sunglasses, they had luckily fitted her face, though they were still slightly big, and made her appear to be even more like him.

"Remy, you'll have to tell me where we are, other wise I'll get lost after this." She reminded him, Remy nodded, knowing she wasn't able to see and turned to face her

"We're in the elevator, going up to the lobby, you'll meet the others then."

Tammi nodded and gulped nervously. She was not entirely sure if she wanted to meet the other mutants of the school. She had the strangest of feeling that they would know she was blind and treat her differently; she hated it when things like that happened.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors whooshed open. Remy took her arm just above the wrist and gently steered her out into the lobby. They had only gone five steps before stopping, and Tammi was sure she felt the gaze of others on her.

"Everyone, this is my sister Tammi. Tammi, everyone." Remy said helpfully. Tammi nodded and lifted one arm into a hesitant wave.

"H-hi." She said weakly. There was silence for a moment and then the sound of many people rushing forwards to greet her. She coward beside Remy as her hand was shook and many names were thrown into her face. Her head swimming slightly at all of the introductions, she barely felt the arm hit her back in a friendly gesture. She did, however, feel the glasses fly form her face, exposing her sightless eyes to the mutants in the lobby. The room went deathly silent as she cringed against her brother

Her secret was out, and she'd barely been out of the infirmary for twenty minutes.

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Translations:

Tête somnolente bonjour – Good morning sleepy head

Non! C'est vendeur de magasin, vous parlant à trois le matin – No! It is magazine salesman, talking to you at three in the morning!

Oui – Yes

Où sommes-nous? – Where are we?

Il est Tammi mort. La guilde d'Assasins s'est assurée de celle – He is dead Tammi. The Assassins Guild made sure of that

"Est-ce que je suis censé le dire l'ai mérité? - Am I supposed to say he deserved it?

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To Our Reviewers:

Crazycatluver: Glad you like the chapter! Thanks for the Review!

Jinxeh: Wow, that criticism got really confusing. Evil head teachers in my school won't let us have proms. My brother's year had to beg for one! Arguing with yourself is fun! Your chapter was wicked! Thanks for the Review!

Wondergal Jubilee and Virgo: I love that word! Thanks for the Review!

Lady Suneidesis: Glad you like this! Thanks for the Review!

Silverbells: Hmm... no, I don't think so. Did she ever have Carol Danver's powers at any time during the Evolution series? I am not sure if she ever did...and since it's an Evolution fic...then I'd say she won't. If they get along, it would be really interesting! Thanks for the Review!

Windvuur: I think its French French, Tammi rox! Thanks for the Review!

Teen titan girl: Glad you like this story! Tammi rox! Thanks for the Review!


	6. A Roof Chat

The Gambit's Kin

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

A Note form Jinxeh: Hey ya'll! This is written by myself, Jinxeh. It's one of the shortest chapter's I have written for a long while…but somehow I think you'll live, lol. Oh…and as for the Jim Beam thing…I dunno, it's kind of an inside joke with my family and their jokingly alcoholic neighbors…so just don't ask. Enjoy!

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Chapter 5: A Roof Chat

"Oui…dat did not go well…" Remy muttered to himself, looking at the small glass he had in his hands and revolving it around slowly so the moonlight caught on the amber substance inside. His deep red-on-black eyes were narrowed, though they shimmered still as they reflected the strange drink in his hands. Already his breath reflected the smell of the drink, rather than the shimmering sight of it.

It was nighttime, a few hours after the botched attempt of him trying to introduce Tammi to the other kids of the Institute. That had obviously not been successful; after Kitty had accidentally knocked the glasses from the young girl's face, the Cajun girl had frozen and then had run. She had almost run into furniture and walls along the way but because she had been counting her steps the first time she made it back to the elevator door and the doors had closed before Remy could reach it.

While the others had waited, shocked, in the lobby he had taken the stairs after her but by the time he reached the lower level she had already barricaded herself in the infirmary, locking the door somehow. He had tried to force his way through the door but she had told him to go away, even when he tried to reason with her, telling her it was no big deal, that they all would have found out sooner or later anyways, but she wasn't hearing it. So stubborn.

So Remy had sat himself outside of the door and had waited patiently for her to open the door. Unfortunately, after an hour or so of this he gave up and went back upstairs. By then it was almost nightfall and by then he was in desperate need of a drink.

From his spot, perched on the roof to the side of one of the many dormers, he could see above the tree line from the woods that surrounded two sides of the mansion's grounds. Behind the building was the lake, and before it were the more sparse sections of woods, with the road leading towards Bayville. Off in the distance he could see the twinkling lights of the town.

It was not often that he found himself in the mood to drink, seeing as he was not even yet of legal age to be allowed to do so by law, but this night was one in which he had been driven to it. He had jimmied the lock on Logan's "secret" liquor cabinet and had taken the first bottle of alcohol his fingers had touched, which happened to be a full bottle of Jim Beam: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

The drink of choice, really.

He could still remember when he was eleven and his father had given him his first taste of the stuff. He had been horribly shaken after an attack from two heavily-armed assassins and Jean-Luc LeBeau had decided to calm him down the easiest way possible. He had put Tammi to bed and had sat the young boy down, pushing a shot glass of the drink into his hands, and watching him carefully to make sure he drank it. After that first shot came three more.

When Remy had been nice and dizzy, he had lied down on the floor of the run-down parlor of the old house and was asleep in no time. When he awoke the next morning he had been met with a blinding headache. He had stumbled groggily to his own room, collapsed on his bed, and slept until nightfall again.

Awaking again he had turned his head, blinking blearily, only to see Tammi sitting on the edge of his bed, crying into her hands. She had only been seven years old then, but he knew that she never cried unless something was wrong, very wrong. Although he would have preferred to go back and sleep instead, he had found himself sitting up and making her turn to face him by grabbing her shoulders and turning her around.

When he had asked her what was wrong she had responded, through hiccups, that she had come into his room to wake him up. However, no matter what she would do, he had remained asleep, hardly moving. He had frightened her to the point of tears, and she had, in her seven-year-old mind, thought he had been _dead_, of all things.

That had been the last straw for Remy concerning his father. He realized that drinking the Jim Beam had not been right, but a father giving so much to his son just to get him to calm down had not been right either. And because of that he had frightened his little sister! From that day, he had sworn that he would never frighten her like that again, and he would prevent anything else from harming her or frightening her from then on.

_Boy did I fail in dat case…_

He sighed and took another sip of the liquid, wincing as the sour and bitter taste washed over his tongue and yet swallowing it anyways. Next to him, wedged between two loose shingles, was an almost-full bottle of the stuff, just waiting to be consumed. He was not stupid enough to think that Professor Xavier could possibly not know what he was doing up on the roof. However, the Cajun also knew that he would not do anything about it.

Remy was not really much of a drinker, and was not in danger of becoming an alcoholic anytime soon anyways. He may not have been of legal age to drink but he was an adult nonetheless. It seemed to Remy that he had lived for a hundred years rather than the measly nineteen he, in actuality, had. Life experiences such as the ones he had been through were enough to age anyone past the maturity of their actual age. Even Professor Xavier could see that.

"Remy?"

He sighed and raised his glass towards the source of the noise, that being a young girl crouching in the window frame of the open window on the dormer next to him. She did not have any sunglasses on, since his pair was currently in the pocket of his trench coat. He was dressed for the cool night, but all she had on was a thin black sweater and loose blue jeans with tennis shoes.

"Come, join de party." He said sourly, raising his glass to his lips and drinking deeply, draining his glass. "Two steps away from de window, three steps to de left and sit down."

"Isn't it slanted?"

"Non."

Tammi raised herself out through the windowsill and, balancing somewhat hesitantly, walked carefully forward and to the left the steps her brother had told her to. Finally her foot nudged one of his and she sighed in relief, sitting herself down next to him and hugging herself.

"Ow'd you get up here?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. It seemed unlikely she would have been able to find the exact same open window he had used to get onto the roof just by chance, meaning someone had most likely helped her to find him. She shrugged.

"De girl named Kitty 'elped me find you. Said she was sorry cuz' she knocked my glasses off." She added with a grin. Before he could reply, she suddenly frowned.

"You're drinking." She said, wrinkling her nose in a tired sort of way. She did not need to be able to see to tell what her brother was doing; after she had lost her sight, it was as if her other senses had become twice as strong for her. Also…the smell of the alcohol would have been enough to give him away either way.

"Non, I'm talking to Publisher's Clearing House on de phone. Dey put me on hold."

"Always with the sarcasm." Tammi muttered, narrowing her blank eyes. "S'long as I've known you, always sarcastic…"

"Better 'n bein' sour 'bout every'ting."

"Who's being sour? Am I bein' sour? I should kick your arse for jus' sayin' dat…"

Although perhaps he himself was the sour one in this situation, Remy found himself grinning at her statement anyways. He needed to remind himself that she had never exactly been the "angel" that their father might have wanted in a daughter, not by far. If anything, she had caused more trouble than he, Remy, would have ever been able to. That might have had something to do with the fact that their father had let her get away with murder in her younger days…figuratively speaking, of course.

"I'm sorry, Remy." Tammi said with a sigh, running a hand through her short brown hair uncomfortably. "Didn't mean ta' run away…I just…I didn't want 'em to know…til' they got to know me." She explained slowly. "I wanted 'em to get to know how I am an' have 'em get ta' know me as Tammi the mutant student 'fore they got to know me as Tammi the invalid…"

"You're not an invalid." Remy said sharply. "You're a damned good fighter! Were when I knew ya, have ta' be now. Don't lie an' try ta say you haven't been practicing."

"Da' took away my staff. Said I'd hurt myself."

"You knew how to use it before your…well, you'd still know how ta use it now, yes?" Remy asked defensively, pouring himself another glass of the alcohol and then wedging the bottle between the slates again. To his surprise, Tammi's hand suddenly shot out and grabbed the neck of the bottle, pulling it towards her. At an even quicker speed, Remy's hand snapped forward and grabbed her wrist.

"Don't think so." He said acidly, wrenching the bottle from her grip and watching her look surly. "Jus' cause we used to sneak a few drinks as kids don't mean you can do dat here." He said, speaking the truth. He and Tammi were sometimes forced to retreat to the crumbling roof of the old headquarters when meetings below had gotten out of hand, but never before Remy had snagged a bottle to take with them.

He had never felt any remorse when they had shared the bottle between themselves. It was not like when his father had gotten him tipsy to calm him down; he had not known what the strange-looking drink was going to do to him then. Tammi knew what would have happened, but he had never allowed her to have enough to get her drunk anyways. He would not have done that to her. He was not his father. Besides, if the girl wanted something to drink then that was her decision.

So, instead of letting her have the half-filled bottle of alcohol, he handed her his glass of it, newly refilled, which she took with sure fingers and a shrug. It might not have been the biggest quantity, but it would do. Her first sip of it was similar to his; she wrinkled her nose and winced at the bitter taste rolling over her tongue, but swallowed it anyways.

"Jim Beam?"

"Yes."

"Figures."

"Y'know I shouldn't be lettin' you drink anymore…" Remy said guiltily. Now that he thought about it, perhaps having his fifteen-year-old sister consume an alcoholic beverage while on the roof of a school was not the best idea…sure she had needed it when she was with the Thieves Guild (what child that age could have dealt with all of that without some comfort?) but now…

"You gonna try an' stop me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I can tell where a liquor bottle is, I can tell where your soft spots are too."

"Harsh words." Remy said sarcastically, taking a swig from his bottle. "How d'ya do dat anyways? Tell where it is, I mean?" he asked curiously. She shrugged and took another sip of her drink, almost succeeding in not wincing the second time.

"You poured some in de glass when I was up here. I heard ye put the bottle back there." She said slowly, thinking of the best way to describe it. It was so difficult when she tried to put the way her senses worked in words, because she hardly knew what was going on with them anyways.

"Sharp senses."

"Most of 'em." Tammi muttered. Her face was turned away from his slightly so he could not see it, or any glimpse of her eyes, but he hardly needed them to be within his sights for him to be able to feel guilt again from her statement. Tammi must have realized that what she had said had some harsh truth to it, because she suddenly winced.

"Ooh…bad subject." She muttered, putting a hand over her mouth loosely. "Sorry…"

"I'm de one who's sorry, Tammi." Remy mumbled sourly, lowering his eyes to the bottle in his hands, as if he were suddenly fascinated by the label he had seen so many times in his life.

"Please don't start dat again…" Tammi groaned. "I tol' you, it ain't your fault! I was de one who used my powers! I didn't have ta listen to you, I just did it cuz' I was scared an' wanted 'dose men ta' go away!"

"I knew you weren't practiced enough with 'em…"

"So? Not like you coulda known it was gonna happen…" Tammi said lightly, taking another sip of her drink. Once again, Remy felt a stab of guilt, both because of the subject they were on and also because he was letting her drink like that. The he shrugged, thinking that he wasn't her father. What did he care? Besides, if he were really doing anything wrong, Xavier would have communicated with him about it by then. "Accidents happen Remy…God's gotta weird sense of humor…

"Just look at the platypus!" they both suddenly said unison, each cracking identical grins.

"Oh…will the inside jokes never stop…" Tammi muttered to herself, grinning down at the half-empty glass in her hand.

"Prob'ly not." Remy said airly, taking a much deeper swig of the drink. The girl had obviously heard him do so, because she suddenly frowned.

"Drivin' ya to drink, am I? I'm such a horrible influence…"

"Shaddup." Remy said, rolling his eyes. It seemed anything the girl said had just a tinge or sarcasm evident in it. Just like old times…only it wasn't old times any more. She was older, and as was he, and things really weren't the same as they had been those years ago, before she had gone blind because of him, before all of that had happened…

Sure, perhaps they had not had the best childhood…but they had had each other to lean on, so they had survived without much incident…until _that_ day. After that had happened, he had felt so ashamed of himself that he could hardly stand to be around anyone from the Thieves Guild. That was one of the reasons he had decided to leave.

He just could not have stood to be around even his sister anymore, seeing the pain she was in. A doctor had been "called upon" to treat her, though maybe not willingly, and Remy had stood by and watched as he did. She had had so many little pieces of metal from the frame in her eyes, then the smaller shards embedded in the skin surrounding them. It had been so painful she had been screaming in the beginning, and so the doctor had been forced to "put her under" to make it easier for him, and less painful for her.

Even now, when he looked over at her, he could clearly see the scars lacing around her eyes in the dim lighting, making his heart suddenly plunge again. He would never be able to shake the feeling of guilt; it haunted him like a painful ghost, poking at his heart. He hated himself for causing her so much pain, both to her psyche and to her physical body, and after he had promised to himself that he would protect her too! Some big brother he was…

"Dat man…Professor Xavier…the one who tol' me to come on outta the infirmary…he tol' me somethin'." Tammi said quietly, breaking the silence between them after a few moments.

"Yeah? What did he say?" Remy asked in interest. Professor Xavier was always interesting to him; he seemed to be one of the few people who did not immediately brand him as a no-good thief and trouble maker. If anyone thought him to be one…then they had no idea what was coming with Tammi, of that the older Cajun was quite sure of at the moment. Even blind, she was feisty.

"He tol' me…dat since neither of us got anyone else dat the state could trust, no good livin' relatives, dat since you're over eighteen and a blood relative…er…well…de state says I can't live here unless I got a legal guardian…" she trailed off their, perhaps able to sense the sudden tension coming from her brother.

"You're not sayin' what I think you're sayin', are you?" he asked, taken aback.

"He says you gotta register as my "legal guardian" or else I'll be a "ward of the state" or somethin' like dat…sorry, Remy…" she said softly, lifting her glass to her lips and finishing off the half of the glass in one swig. Obviously the news had hit her hard as well.

She had been less than happy with the way things had turned out of late, that was well enough said. Her father, although she had not been particularly close with him at the time, had been killed, her house had been destroyed, she was in a new place and she only knew one person there, that person being the man who she had not been in contact with for three years anyways…it was strange, even though she had her brother with her, she had never really felt quite so alone.

"I gotta be your legal guardian?" Remy asked in confusion. Then he shut his mouth just as quickly. The way he had said it made it seem like he wanted nothing to do with her, which was not true. He had been hesitant on seeing her again after the way he had just left his family the first time, but it wasn't like he hated her. If anything, she had the right to hate him…only she did not. That was amazing all on its own, and he was grateful for this…but now he had to be her guardian?

He was only nineteen years old! He was an adult legally, and had been an adult mentally since he was just a kid, but now that he was faced with something like this…he felt like a teenager again. Inside he was having a mini sort of panic attack, though outside he was doing his best to look calm. He did not know why he was, it was not like she could really see him…but then again, she had that way of just knowing how people felt even when she could not see them.

"I know you don' want to…no one would want to now…but…" she shrugged and fumbled around with the glass in her hands for a moment, not knowing what else to say.

"What d'you mean no one would want to?" Remy suddenly asked harshly. "Stop puttin' yourself down, you're depressin sometimes, y'know that?"

"I hadn't the slightest clue. You gonna do it?"

"S'much fun as it'd be, makin' you a ward of de state and all dat…I couldn't do that to you. Course I'll do it…" he said glumly. How was he supposed to pull this off? He had enough issues with taking care of himself, how the hell was he supposed to take care of his fifteen-year-old blind sister? Something like this was serious, he couldn't just leave her to her own devices…he'd actually have to be responsible for her…what was responsible, again?

"Gee, try not to sound so happy 'bout it…" she muttered darkly. Instantly, he felt guilty again, something in which he hated. What kind of sibling relationship could he possibly have with someone who unintentionally made him feel guilty every time he looked at her?

"Sorry." He mumbled. Instantly, she shrugged.

"Not your fault. Nobody'd want this at nineteen, I know…just wish mom was here." She whispered. At once, Remy stiffened slightly, willing himself not to say anything. Secretly, as far as he was concerned he could have cared less if their mother was there or not. He did not hate her, but she had just left them one day without so much as a goodbye. How could someone who had been abandoned by her own mother suddenly wish she was there with her? It didn't make sense in Remy's mind…

But then again, Tammi had been younger than he when their mother had left. He had been old enough to understand the abandonment, but perhaps she had not. He had to wonder if their mother ever even thought about them anymore. He understood that she was a smart woman to have had enough sense to get away from the Guild…he just wished she had had enough sense to take them with her. Perhaps if she had done that none of this would have happened to either of them, and Tammi would have never had her accident…

"Yes…Remy…Remy sure she'd help a lot…" Remy mumbled to himself, though he made it loud enough so that his sister could hear him. "Well…guess that's settled, non?"

"What d'we do now?" Tammi asked suddenly, blinking her eyes. "I mean…where do we go from here? Ya live here, dontcha?"

"Most of the time." Remy said with a shrug. There were those instances when he would find himself taking off when he needed to be alone with his thoughts for a while, but if such a situation would occur sometime in the future he would deal with it then, and not now. "You do now, too."

"You said this place was a mansion, right?"

"Yes…"

"Why can't I ever live in a _normal_ house?" she suddenly complained, making a very sour face indeed, making him all of a sudden laugh.

"You're right…from manor, to manor, to mansion." He snickered, drinking again from the bottle and then pouring what was left of it onto the shingles below him so that it ran into the gutter. "Speakin' of which, Remy tink' it's time his _souer _met de other kids livin' 'ere…"

"Already tried dat, 'member? Don't tink dat it went very well…" Tammi said unsurely. She was ashamed of the way she had run away and now found herself wishing she had just been able to be strong, to bear it and just smile weakly as they had suddenly become quiet upon sight of her blank eyes.

"Second chances are what de Xavier Institute's all about, Tammi." Remy said surely. He got to his feet and stood up proudly, putting a hand over his heart. Even if Tammi could not actually see him, she could tell he was standing up, and his voice practically reeked with overwhelming pride. "Even if we smell like liquor, we'll make a good first impression because we are _LeBeaus_, damn it!"

"How much did Remy drink 'fore I got here?" Tammi asked in confusion, though she smiled anyways knowing he was acting in such a way just to make her smile. He had often had a way of doing that, and was always the one to cheer her up when they were kids. Sighing, she stood up as well, still holding the glass in her hands.

"Tammi be willin' to give it another shot…" she said unsurely, with a shrug. Grinning, her brother reached into the pocket of his trench coat and extracted his sunglasses. Reaching down he took her free hand and raised it up, pressing the glasses into her palm. She closed her fingers over them and he let go. He watched with a sad smile as she unfolded the glasses and put them over her eyes, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"How do I look?" she asked tiredly, with a raised eyebrow. Remy nodded seriously.

"Like a very determine mutant girl."

"How do I smell?"

"Like Jim Beam."

"Excellent." Tammi said with a nod. "Exactly the impression Tammi wants to make! Now 'elp me inside so I can make a good second impression…"

Laughing again, Remy took her hand in his and led her to the window, going through first and then helping her in. He took her glass and his bottle, putting them on the dresser next to the window. As they walked out of the room, which happened to be his own bedroom, and into the hall Remy whispered seriously to his sister.

"Seriously…if a gruff man named Logan sniffs ye and smells the Jim Beam, an' den asks ye where ye got de drink…_don't_ tell him Remy got it from his liquor cabinet."

* * *

To Our Reviewers:

Windvuur: Glad you like this. No I haven't seen the new animated series. It's probably not been released on T.V. over here. What's it called? I can tell you if I've heard of it then.

Jinxeh: I'm in year 10, but the year 12's & 13's haven't had a prom ever in our school, except for this year. That leaves me with only… 2 years before I have a prom! I hate my head teacher; he won't let us do anything classified under 'fun'. I'm sorry I left the chapter like that. I didn't know what to write at the end, and now I'm not to sure what to write either. I need to think, need ice cream, that helps. Heehee, I love the whole unconscious bit, it shows Remy has a great caring side. The jokes rock, they're great! You can say update soon for this chapter; it's my turn to think of something!

Lady Suneidesis: Glad you like the story! I'm learning French, although am not very good at it. I got most of the french from a free-translator site, not sure if Jinxeh does too…

Ayu: It's really sad on Tammi that she's blind, but she's still very cool! Glad you like the story!


	7. Talks

The Gambit's Kin

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

A note: Written by me, (can't you tell chapters written by me?) pretty long for once in my life, I'm impressed with myself! (Can't think of a title for the chapter, can't you tell?)

* * *

Chapter 7: Talks

"I am, like, so sorry." Kitty said once again

"Don't worry about it Kitty." Tammi replied, letting go of another person's hand she had just shook and taking up the next, focussing on their name

"Seriously. If I had know-"

"It's fine Kitty." Tammi said again

"It's not." Kitty replied, "I feel such an idiot."

"I accept your apology." Tammi said in a bored voice, wondering how long the girl had been apologising for, since she and Remy had gotten off the roof, where had her brother gotten to anyway?

'_Probably hiding from the apologies'_ Tammi thought to herself

"I really am-" Kitty stopped when a gloved hand went over her mouth

"Kitty, the girl said to shut up." Rogue said, taking her hand from Kitty's mouth, wiping it across her jeans and holding it out to Tammi

"Hey," she said gently as the blind girl grasped it "Ah'm Rogue."

"Tammi." Remy's sister replied with a slight smile "You southern?"

"Yeah."

"Mississippi?"

"Yeah."

"Very cool." Tammi finished, grinning as she dropped Rogue's hand, "Tammi thought she recognised your accent."

"Reckoned you'd be able ta." Rogue replied "Kitty, don't apologise ta the girl again, she's heard it enough." She said, noticing the girl was opening her mouth again.

"I was going to ask her if she wanted a soda." Kitty replied

"Non, merci." Tammi said, she had already had a drink, with Remy, on the roof. If the others could smell the drink on her, they had chosen not to say anything. "Has anyone seen Remy?" she asked

"Right here soeur." Remy said, moving over from where he stood by the wall, he'd been watching his sister out of the way of the crowd, just in case she decided to do a runner again, he'd be able to get to her quicker as he didn't have to fight out of the centre of the crowd.

"Montrez-moi de way à de cuisine? L'alcool ne fait pas quelle nourriture fait pour vous remplir."

"Sure thing Tammi." He replied, smiling at the looks of confusion the other were given them. They were learning french at the school, but none of them were able to speak at the speed or vocabulary of the Cajun siblings. Remy walked over to Tammi, taking her gently by the shoulder and leading her off, watching her mouth move as she silently counted the steps. They had to walk slowly for Tammi to be able to count her way down the corridor so she could find the room on her own in the future, and Remy took the time to wonder how he would be able to look after his sister, he was not going to let her be a ward of the state, she was his sister after all, he had to look out for her.

He'd failed at that once before, and she had suffered greatly from it, her blindness making it impossible for either of them to forget what had happened, he couldn't do that to her again, it wouldn't be fair. Or right.

Tammi sighed suddenly, turning her head so she was facing him as they walked

"I know what you're thinking." She said sadly

"Vous êtes psychique maintenant aussi bien puis?" Remy snapped, before wincing "Merde. Tammi, I'm sorry." He apologised

"Yeah. I know you are." She replied, "I'm sorry too."

"What for?" Remy asked

"Pour débarquer cette responsabilité sur vous, je suis désolé. Si je ne vous avais pas téléphoné, vous devriez vous occuper de moi." Remy sighed, taking her other shoulder and spinning her around quickly to face him

"Si vous ne m'aviez pas téléphoné, vous seriez mort" He said seriously "Jamais la parole quelque chose n'aiment encore cela."

"Oui Monsieur" she barked in military tones, a smile flying across her face "I'm sorry I'm being depressing again Sir. Can we keep walking please, Sir?"

"Oui." Remy said with a smile, turning his sister back around and walking her off again. They entered the kitchen a couple of moments later, to find Logan sitting there. His nostrils flared for a moment and he looked up at them, eyes narrowed

"Have you been drinking?" he demanded, Tammi turned her head to Remy

"Est-il ce Logan?" she asked

"Oui." Remy replied with a small nod

"Oh." She fell silent for a second before looking in the direction she had heard Logan speak from, a smile on her face

"No sir. We haven't been drinking, maybe it be de perfume Tammi wears?" she suggested. Logan rolled his eyes and stood up

"Been telling your sister about me I see Gumbo." He growled "You watch out for her, I'm going upstairs." He walked past them, his nostrils flaring as he passed by and a small frown setting into his face.

"Vous pensez qu'il va vérifier son bar-buffet?" Tammi asked after a minute

"Probably." Remy replied "He can't kill us though, Professor X won't let him."

He sat Tammi down in the chair Logan had just left and grabbed them both some food from the fridge, along with two sodas from a cupboard. They sat for half an hour, not talking, they ate in silence as they ploughed steadily through the snacks Remy put on the table. Tammi finally opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Remy.

"De Professor wants to see us Tammi." He told her, standing up and clearing off the table. Tammi stood up and reached out, placing a hand on Remy's arm, the talk walked from the kitchen.

X

"Come in." Xavier said as Remy lifted his hand to knock on the study door. Tammi raised an eyebrow

"Does he do that a lot?" she asked

"Yeah," Remy replied "You'll get used to it." He opened the door and Tammi walked in, one hand in front of her slightly as she negotiated her way to a seat.

"Good evening Tammi," the Professor said as the girl lowered herself into the seat she'd found "I take it you are settling in well?"

"Oui." She replied, "I am fine."

"I take it there have been no further problems since this morning?" he asked, Tammi shifted uncomfortably but gave him a grin

"Non, it has been fine. Kitty apologises a lot though…" she broke off and grinned broadly again, Remy smirked and leant against the wall, watching his sister casually.

"Yes, I suppose she would." Xavier replied with a smile "Remy, I take you have decided over becoming Tammi's legal guardian?"

"Oui, I'll do it. My soeur needs me to do so after all." Answered with a small smile.

"Excellent." The Professor said, steeping his fingers (A.N. Mr Burns moment… hehe:P I don't think steeping is the word for it, I give up…) "I'll have that sorted out as soon as possible, in the mean time we need to sort out a room for you, and perhaps a trip to the mall for new clothes…"

"Wait a minute." Tammi cut in, looking up at the professor, or roughly where we was sitting anyway "What about school, I mean, I won't be able to do normal schooling like the others will I?" Remy looked at his sister in surprise, he was going to ask that question himself, without Tammi being their encase she got upset about the topic, but she was quite boldly putting it forward, obviously not wanting everyone to pity her completely for being invalid. Xavier looked at her steadily; his eyes flickered to Remy for a moment as he pondered over what the girl had said, he hadn't really thought of this slight problem before hand.

"We could find someone to teach you," he said eventually "Or I'm sure we'd be happy to teach you ourselves. You can both go now, I'll tell you when everything's been worked out." The two nodded, Tammi standing and walking steadily over to the door, having counted her way into the room earlier, she exited swiftly, Remy following closely.

"Remy?" Xavier called before the young man had gotten out of the room

"Yes Professor?" Remy asked, already having a feeling he knew what the Professor was going to say

"I would like to ask you not to drink on the premises, the same goes for your sister." He gave Remy a smile as he closed the door.

X

"That went well…" Tammi said. They were sitting up on the roof again, this time with two bottles of soda and a large packet of chips between them.

"Better than expected." Remy replied. Throwing a crisp over the edge of the roof. "Couldn't have hoped for anything else."

"Logan hasn't asked over de Jim Bean yet." Tammi reminded him

"Nous devrions tout être très reconnaissants de celui" Remy replied. Tammi peeled her sweater off; it was pretty warm up on the roof at that moment, laying the clothing on the roof behind her, she leant back so her head was resting against it and gazed up at the sky… sort of.

Remy watched her in silence for a moment, his gaze falling to her left arm, where the stitches were visible, it would no doubt need to be bandaged, Dr McCoy had said something about that, but Tammi had left the infirmary before he could do anything, she'd have to go back down to get it sorted, or she'd catch the stitches or something drastic like that.

As if she knew what Remy was doing, Tammi put her right hand over the stitching covering it from his view.

"You'll need it to be bandaged." He told her, explaining why he'd been staring

"Okay." She replied

"How did it happen?" Remy asked, he'd been thinking about it all day, after Hank had told him it couldn't have been done when the tanks had exploded, he'd been trying to work out how she'd gotten it ever since.

Tammi sighed, she knew he'd ask, she just wasn't sure if she could tell him, after all, she had killed that guy…

"Before you came…" she started wobbly, sitting up "One of de assassins came into my room, he threatened me, told me not to move 'or else'. I knew it wasn't you or da from he voice, I attacked him! She turned her head to Remy, tears starting to run down her face "I got de knife from my boot and stabbed him! He must have gotten me whilst I was trying to hit him. Mon Dieu Remy! I killed him! I'm a murderer! De mob are going to have my neck for it…" she sobbed quietly then, everything she had been feeling after she had killed the man dying into heart-wrenching sobs, Remy frowned at her obvious guilt, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders

"Calme vers le bas Tammi" he said soothingly in french "Ce n'est pas votre défaut"

"It is!" she cried, "I killed the guy Remy, you know what dat means?"

"That you are still alive." Remy said grimly "If you hadn't got him, he'd have killed you, and wouldn't be feeling badly about it, let it drop Tammi…"

"Let it drop?" she repeated "Remy I killed him! I can't let that go!" he pulled herself from her brother and stood, rushing forwards so that she almost fell off the roof, but managing to catch herself in time as she climbed through the window, her cries echoing back up to Remy.

"Tammi!" he yelled after her, standing up and grabbing her discarded sweater, he ran after her.

* * *

Translations:

(There are a lot in this chapter, oops. My french ran away with me…)

Non, merci – no thank you

Soeur – sister

Montrez-moi de way à de cuisine? L'alcool ne fait pas quelle nourriture fait pour vous remplir - Show me the way to the kitchen? Alcohol does not do what food does to fill you up

Vous êtes psychique maintenant aussi bien puis? – So you are psychic as well now then?

Pour débarquer cette responsabilité sur vous, je suis désolé. Si je ne vous avais pas téléphoné, vous devriez vous occuper de moi. – I left this responsibility on you, I'm sorry. If I hadn't phoned you wouldn't be stuck with me.

Si vous ne m'aviez pas téléphoné, vous seriez mort – If you hadn't phoned me, you'd be dead (Damn, that's a bit blunt)

Jamais la parole quelque chose n'aiment encore cela. – Never say something like that again.

Oui Monsieur – Yes Sir.

Oui - Yes

Est-il ce Logan? – Is this Logan?

Vous pensez qu'il va vérifier son bar-buffet? – Do you think he's gone to check his liquor cabinet?

Nous devrions tout être très reconnaissants de celui – We should all be very grateful of that.

Calme vers le bas Tammi – Calm down Tammi

Ce n'est pas votre défaut – It is not your fault

I think that's them all, there were a lot, oops…

* * *

To Our Reviewers:

Lady Suneidesis: No, they shouldn't be drinking. Though if Remy were living in Britain it'd be all right. Stop corrupting you sister Remy! The conversation was cool, no action then, sorry, or powers…

Jinxeh: Remy may not be good as a legal guardian, but he's hot and sure as hell try to be the best he can! It's your turn next!

GiveGodtheglory: Thanks for the review! Review!


	8. Gambit

The Gambit's Kin

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

Jinxeh's note: Sorry for the wait guys; that was my fault. I've been extremely busy lately, what with work, and preparing for the fair, and everything else. Oi…anyways, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 8: Gambit

Remy was angry.

And why shouldn't he have been? For the second time in twenty-four hours, his sister had run away from him beyond the point of tears, he found that he had no means to console her, and he was, once more, pacing outside of a room that she had locked herself in, at a loss for how he could even get her out.

Wait, get her out? Hell, he didn't even know whose room she was in! For all he knew it could have been Rogue's room…

Although he did give in to temptation and allow himself to grin a bit at this slightly evil thought, he shook his head quickly and returned to being serious for the sake of his sister. He had other things to worry about rather than a pretty river rat he happened to be quite smitten with.

"Tammi, open de door!" he tried again, once he ceased his pacing and resumed with pounding on the door with a gloved hand. No one responded; not like he had thought that she would. No one had responded for the half an hour he had been at it, why would anyone have done so now? He was beginning to believe that it was all a lost cause…

"Fine," he finally sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, as his other hand was still clutching her sweater. "I get de point already. I'll go…"

No one responded once more. He shrugged, having expected that, and put her sweater right in front of the door before turning on his heel and sulking down the corridor with his hands in his pockets, looking dejected.

A few moments after he had turned the corner, the door to which he had so diligently been pacing in front of opened just a crack, and, upon realizing that no one was out there to catch her and pull her out, one hand and forearm appeared from the darkness of the room, feeling along the hallway carpeting until the fingers brushed against the sweater and grabbed it up. The hand snatched the shirt away and took it into the dark room again.

The door shut with a snap, leaving the hallway empty.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She had no idea what time it was, but she did not even care either way. Tammi was used to being up until the late hours of the night, only falling asleep when she felt her eyes grow heavy sometime around dawn. It was nothing new.

She knew that she was in one of the school's spare rooms. Just a few minutes ago the professor, Professor Xavier she thought his name was, had contacted her mentally, much to her surprise, and had told her so. He had also said she could stay there for a while, unless she found that she would rather have a roommate.

This seemed doubtful. She was much to used to being on her own to be able to stand having a roommate, even if she could not see the girl. After Remy had left, she had had no one to talk to except for their housekeeper, and since she was busy much of the day…she was often on her own. No one to talk to, no one to confide in…it was a lonely life, but she was accustomed to it now.

She was sitting in the window seat upon the cushions provided there, the side of her face pressed upon the cool glass, her blank white eyes seeming to scour over the landscaping even though she could see nothing. She did not mind; it left more to her imagination. As strange as it sounded, she had a hard time imagining things as they were supposed to be. It seemed like it had been a lifetime since she had lost her sight.

In that time, what she could remember in her mind was growing hazy; everything she could remember was disappearing from her mind. The bright colors she had once been able to see were growing dim and dull in her mind. She could no longer remember what she looked like, what Remy looked like, what her father looked like…she could hardly remember exactly what the color blue was, having been enveloped in blackness for so long. She could not remember what the sky was like on a bright summer day.

And it was killing her slowly inside; not being able to remember just those simple things. When she thought about her brother now, all she could see in her mind was a blurry outline of what she believed him to be. A slight swish as he moved, courtesy of his trench coat, a slight clink as he walked thanks to his metal-tipped boots…

His voice, at least, was discernable to her. As she could not see him anymore, she had trained herself to at least remember his voice. She had gotten quite good at that, actually. As she had lost one sense, the others had gotten stronger. Her sense of smell seemed much more powerful than before she had gone blind, she could hear things she never would have paid attention to before; a whole new world had seemed to have been opened to her…but she would have given all of that up just for her sight to come back to her.

It would never happen, but it was nice to think about, she supposed.

Nice, but also utterly devastating. Every time she thought about all of this, about all of the things that she was forgetting, it just made everything seem more real to her. It made her remember that this was not just temporary. She was blind. She might not have always had been, but from that point on she always would be. She would never get her sight back. She would never be able to see her surroundings again and gaze around in wonder in a new place. It was over.

"Oui…" she muttered, bowing her head and smiling sadly. Yes…she had to admit it to herself; it was all over for her. She figured she might as well have given up right then and there. "S'all over fer me…"

Through all of this, she had hardly noticed that she was even crying. That always happened to her; she hardly noticed it when the waterworks started. It always seemed to sneak up upon her in that way.

It was sort of like Rogue in that way too.

"Um…hi," said a distinctly southern voice from her doorway, taking Tammi by such surprise that she almost fell off of her window seat with a start. When she regained her balance however, she silently cursed to herself as she looked wildly to where she knew the doorway to be. She could not see; it was just instinct.

"H-hello?" she asked with a frown, trying to place the voice. It was familiar, but was also obviously just someone she had met recently… "Rogue, right?" she asked, wiping away her tears with her the cuff of her sweater, which she had put on again recently. It smelled like Jim Bean, like Remy, still.

"Uh, yeah," said Rogue, coming further into the room. She left the door open behind her, spilling light into the room. In that dim lighting, she was able to get a good look at the younger girl, and it again staggered her to how much of a resemblance she held to Remy. Except for her eyes, of course…though she was sure that Remy had told her that they were once the same as his; red-on-black. "Ah just…Ah guess Ah just wanted to see if you were all right…Remy was worried and everything…"

"Was he now?" Tammi asked, resuming her position, leaning against the window with her face pressed up against the cool glass. Somehow him being worried about her did not surprise her very much…but he had to learn that sometimes she could deal just fine on her own. She preferred it that way, most of the time now. She'd made do with being alone before. "Ow'd you get in 'ere?" she suddenly asked, though she did not move still.

"Picked the lock," Rogue said with a frown, twirling the library card and long safety pin around in one of her gloved hands.

"If you could pick it, how come Remy didn't?" Tammi asked, finally turning her head and looking around with a frown. Rogue shrugged and came forward a bit more until she had reached the bed, and then sat down on the edge, facing the younger girl before her.

"Dunno…guess he was waiting for ya to come out on your own or somethin'…"

Although Tammi made a slight noise of impatience, Tammi made no move to say anything else to the other southern girl. This only made Rogue's frown go even deeper. Although she hated to admit it, she was not entirely sure how she felt about this new girl at the school. In her opinion, the girl was acting like a complete brat…making Remy worry about her, always running away…

Of course, she hardly knew the hell that Tammi had been through. As far as Rogue knew, she had been born blind and had never had to suffer through all of her pain, mentally and physically. She did not know that while she had lead a comfortable time at the mansion, she, Tammi, had been practically alone in some old manor. While Rogue had been flirting with Remy, Tammi had been wondering if he would come back for her, if she would ever even see him again…

But, of course, Rogue could not know about any of that. Remy sure wouldn't have told her about Tammi's past by that time, so how could she have? She had no idea that now the younger girl was fearing for even her own life, afraid that she would have to pay for the man she had killed back at the manor…she still could not believe she had done that. She had taken a human being's life. She was a killer…maybe he had had a wife…kids…a family…

"Y'know, you're really messin' him up," Rogue said with a slight scowl, and saying it in much more of a snappish tone than she had originally intended to. "Fore you phoned him he was all content here, and now that ya are here…he's a wreck!"

"That's not my fault," Tammi muttered with a sigh. "You just…you just don' understand, all right?"

"What's there to understand?" Rogue asked incredulously. She really did not understand what the whole problem was here; Remy was a wreck, his sister seemed like nothing but a little brat, and it was her fault for causing all of this! All Rogue knew was that Remy was no longer his flirtatious and glib ordinary self, and she did not like that one bit, making her defensive. "Why d'ya have ta act like that, anyways?"

"Act like what? Tammi snapped, rubbing her scarred eyelids tiredly, just wishing that the girl would go away before she said something that she would regret.

"Like a brat!" Rogue said angrily, getting to her feet in an instant.

Too late.

"I'm not acting like a _brat_," Tammi practically growled through gritted teeth. Oh, if only Rogue knew what she, Tammi, had been through lately…

"Yes, ya are!" Rogue exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. "You want everyone to feel sorry for you! Well boo-hoo; all of our pasts suck, so why should you get special treatment about it?" she snarled.

"I don't _want_ anyone to feel sorry for me, _Rogue_!" Tammi said angrily, hopping down from her window seat and facing towards where she was sure the girl was with clenched fists, ignoring the fact that when the circulation in her arms was hastened, when her fists were clenched, that her wound would hurt. "An' I don't want no special treatment! I didn't _want_ any of this! You think I _did_?" she was screaming now, pointing to her blank eyes furiously.

"You bein' blind ain't got nothin' to do with any of this!" Rogue said with a small smirk on her face. "See, there you go again!"

"It's got everything to do with this!" Tammi exclaimed, forcing herself to calm down before she hauled off and beat the other girl down. She had a feeling that she could take her… "If de assassins never cost me my sight, Remy woulda never left in the first place! Or if he had, he woulda taken me with him! I'd still be able to see! Me da' would still be _alive_, I woulda never..."

She stopped herself, unwilling to reveal to this despicable girl what it was that she had done. She scowled; she didn't know why Remy would ever have shown interest in her. She knew he liked her; she just knew it. The only excuse that Tammi could think of was that she was probably attractive…

"Oh just shut up," Rogue snarled. "Y'know, Ah was tryin' to like ya at first, for Remy's sake, but you're worse than some of the new recruits!"

"I tried to like ya at first too! D'ya treat all the new mutants here like this?" Tammi snapped right back. After that, their voices were lost in a hailstorm of insults and comebacks from both side; both girls were fairly much screaming at one another, though neither probably heard exactly what it was that the other was saying to them. They did not even notice when hurried footsteps approached the room and did not turn around when Remy appeared in the doorway, his eyes wide and his bo staff clutched firmly in his hands.

However, perhaps upon realizing that the screams he had heard were not cries for help but rather two very angry girls who looked about ready to strangle each other right then and there. Instead he lowered his staff and raised his voice, fighting to be heard over their voices.

"Rogue! Tammi!" he shouted, but to no avail. They did not even turn; did not even acknowledge that they had heard him. He sighed and gritted his teeth, and tried again.

"You two! SHUT DE HELL UP!" he bellowed. Immediately, both girls turned to him with matching glares.

"_What_?" Rogue snapped with narrowed eyes just as Tammi snarled the word "_Que_?" in the same tone of voice.

"Why are you two _filles_ fighting like dis?" he asked in bemusement as Tammi stepped away from the other girl, crossing her arms and breathing rapidly and angrily through her nostrils while she ignored the pain in her arm.

"She started it!" Tammi said with narrowed blank eyes, scuffing the toe of her boot on the floor as though bored. "She kept sayin' I was tryin' to make people feel sorry for me or _quelque chose_…" she said darkly. "_Elle este une petite gigolette si vous me demandez…_" she added under her breath.

"Tammi!" Remy said warningly, hearing the words quite clearly although Rogue looked a bit confused as to what she had said, not being able to understand all of the words. "_Je ne pense pas que cela aide_!"

"_Bien elle est_!"

Rogue was now beginning to become quite agitated; she knew that they were talking about her, and she wanted to know what they were saying.

"Listen Remy," she said darkly. "Your sister's got some major issues, ya know that?"

"Says de girl who began _screaming_ at Tammi for no reason…" Tammi mumbled under her breath.

"Rogue," Remy began, aiming a somewhat frightened start to a conversation at the woman. However, she suddenly put her hands on her hips and looked affronted, as if he was vying against her. "Er…Tammi…" he started, but she did the same. He was stuck. He knew there was no possible way that it was Tammi's fault really; she had been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours and was stressed…and he knew how Rogue had that nasty temper of her's sometimes…

He made to try again but before he could Rogue put a hand up; she did not want to hear it.

"Fine," she said shortly, stalking past him and into the hall. "Whatever," she snarled as she walked down the hall, able to hear that he had been about to say something to her. He watched her go tiredly and then shook his head slowly once before looking back into the room. His sister just stood there, a guilty look upon her face. She knew what she had done.

"Sorry, Rem," she said softly, her head bowed. "I didn't mean ta fight with 'er…she just made me so _mad_, thinkin' she _knew_ me…"

"S'ok, Tammi," Remy muttered, shaking his head again. "De fille's gotta a temper; dat's for sure…she'll come 'round. You're lucky…when we first met her aim was ta practically destroy me…"

"But dat describes _all_ a' de girls that ya liked," Tammi said in confusion. Remy was less than amused.

"Funny," he scoffed. "Y'ok, den?" he asked, suddenly concerned as he remembered their conversation on the rooftop. Her face suddenly took on a very stony and cold appearance, and she nodded grimly.

"Yeah…Tammi fine," she said quietly. "I'm just…gonna get ta bed," she said with a shrug. Rather than argue with this, her brother nodded thoughtfully as he slid his staff back together and stuck it into his pocket.

"Fine, but tomorrow you're getting sewed up for dat arm, got it?" he asked harshly, making her scowl.

"Fine…" she mumbled with a sigh after a moment's hesitation. "Right now, I just want sleep…"

He left her then, closing the door to her room so she could get into bed and walking down the hallway with his hands on his pockets. He was tired as well, but before he could go to bed he had someone else that he needed to talk to. Finding himself in the girl's section of the dorm rooms (he was careful, just in case Logan was lurking about) he found the door to the room that Kitty and Rogue shared and knocked on it lightly.

"Rogue," he hissed, red-on-black eyes scouring over the darkened corridor. "C'mon, open up!"

However, it was Kitty that opened the door, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she did.

"R-Remy?" she said with a yawn. "Like, what do you want?"

"I need ta speak to Rogue," he said with a sigh. "She in there?"

"No," Kitty said uncertainly. "She said something about imagining your sister's face on a punching bag, so I think she went down to-"

"The gym," Remy finished with a sigh before jogging down the corridor, his coat tails flapping behind him even as he turned the corner. Kitty blinked and then scowled slightly as she closed her door.

"Yeah, you're _welcome_…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Remy entered the gym, located in the lower level of the Xavier Institute, the first thing he saw was Rogue, aiming a high-kick at one of the hanging punching bags. She was wearing tight black slacks with black and grey tennis shoes and a green tank top with no gloves. As invigorating as it was for Remy to see her without layers of clothing on, he had to remind himself that he had a small job to do before he could think about that.

Or he could think about that while he talked to her; either/or, really.

After that last kick, she turned as she prepared to run at it again, but stopped as she caught sight of him leaning against the doorframe. He had a rather determined, if not at least a somewhat amused, look upon his face and that only made her own scowl grow as she saw it.

"Don't even try talkin' to me right now, Swamp Rat," she said adamantly, crossing her arms and tapping one of her feet impatiently on the matted floor in a rhythmic pattern. Remy, however, was not deterred.

"Don't think ya got any choice in de matter, River Rat," he said with a small, yet sad, grin.

"Why dontcha go talk to your precious sister instead," she spat back. He shrugged.

"Cuz' I already did," he said, then continuing as he saw her expression darken once more at this, "And that's why I'm talkin' to you too…I jus' wanna ask ya if ya could cut her some slack, please?" he asked, well aware that that had to have been the first time he had ever used the word "please" when talking to anyone who lived in the school.

"Some _slack_?" Rogue repeated with an expression that suggested that something foul smelling was in the same room as she. "Maybe she needs to cut the drama queen front, and _then_ maybe I'll cut her some slack!"

"She's not tryin' ta be a drama queen," Remy said, running a hand through his reddish-bronze hair. "It's just…she's had it rough lately…she's young; she can't handle it…"

"Okay, so her house burned down," Rogue said with a grimace. "And your guy's…well…your dad did die…but neither of ya were close to him, were ya?"

"Er…no," Remy admitted somewhat bashfully. It was true that he had never had an exactly close relationship with his father, but that did not mean that he had ever wanted him _dead_, after all. "But apart from me, he was all dat Tammi had left, no matter if she liked him much. She don' even have our mother anymore…it's been rough for her, an' her blindness sure as hell ain't helping'," he muttered, his guilt catching up him as he spoke of it.

"Well how long's she been blind?" Rogue asked, unconvinced. "Figure she'd be used to it by now…"

"Don't say dat," he muttered, a bit disturbed by her words. "An it's on'y been three years…"

"Oh," Rogue said with wide eyes, lowering her hands somewhat guiltily. "Ah thought she was…born…blind or something…well…still, she doesn't hafta act like that!"

"She's got a lot on 'er mind!" he protested. "Will ya just give 'er anoder chance?" he asked pleadingly, almost sickening even himself what with the way he was acting at the moment.

"Tell me what exactly it is she's got on her mind, and I'll think about it," she said, crossing her arms again and raising an eyebrow. She figured it couldn't have been anything too bad…

"Eh…I can't do dat," Remy said instantly, the guilt on his face all too obvious to her, which only boosted her suspicions that he was hiding something very important from her.

"Why not?"

"Because…I can't…" he said, backing away into the lower level corridor as he did, his eyes narrowed. "Jus'…give her a chance?"

"Remy, Ah wanna know exactly what Ah'm dealing with here before that happens," Rogue said adamantly her eyes piercing holes into his own. "Either ya tell me what the heck's goin' on here, or Ah promise _nothin'_."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ten minutes later, she was sitting on the edge of one of the weight-lifting machines, her eyes wide as she wrung her hands together, looking down at the mats on the floor, an expression of guilt even stronger than that that Remy had recently shown on her thickly make-up covered face. Remy was standing next to the machine, leaning back against the wall with his hands once again in his pockets as he too stared down at the floor. His face was a mixture of grief and guilt; it was apparent he had just said some things that were very difficult for him to have done so.

"Ah'm…sorry, Swamp Rat," Rogue said quietly, finally looking up at him with pity in her eyes. "Ah didn' know all a' that…"

"An' I didn't want ya to," Remy muttered darkly. "Tammi didn' wan' anyone to either. She killed dat guy…and now dat she did, we just know dere's gonna be some repercussions…"

"Yeah…but I think I can understand her a little better now," said Rogue with a frown. "I mean…she couldn't see the guy. It was either kill or get killed, right?"

"Yeah, but maybe if she coulda seen her _surroundings_ she coulda escaped without havin' to even hurt the guy…"

"That ain't your fault," Rogue suddenly said acidly. Not understanding as to why it was that Remy had seemed even guiltier when talking about his sister's condition, she had pressed him for more information. Although it took a few minutes, he eventually admitted to what he had thought as being his fault. He told her about the night the assassins attacked. "You told her to use her powers so she could _protect_ herself…it wasn't your fault that she was hurt."

"But I _knew_ that she wasn't experienced enough with her powers," he added bitterly. "I made her do it. She didn' wan' to…but I made 'er…my _souer_ was hurt cuz' a' me…"

"Listen Remy," Rogue said grimly, getting to her feet and walking the two steps up to him that she had to go. She stood right in front of him and, despite the fact that his heart gave a slight jolt, he pushed that away. Now was most definitely not the time to think about any of that. "You need to get it through that hard head a' yours that what happened to your sister ain't your fault. It was bad, and…yeah, maybe it was a bit stupid of ya…but ya couldn't of known it was gonna happen, all right?"

"I don' know…"

"Swamp Rat…" she said with a frown. "I'm pretty sure your sister isn't holdin' it against you…so you need to let it go."

"Maybe…" Remy said, though he still was note entirely sure about any of that. Rogue shrugged.

"Well…not a breakthrough, but better than nothin'," she said with an almighty sigh. Then she grinned and, before he even realized what had happened, gave him a quick kiss on the lips. As his eyes went wide, both from surprise and from a fear that she would absorb him, she pulled away, the ghost of a smile on her face. He blinked.

Nothing had happened.

Now, of course he hadn't expected it…but perhaps she had. She had been working vigorously with her powers, and although she still had a long way to go before she would even be able to hold hands with the guy, a small kiss wasn't going to kill either one of them. She had at least that much control, and was proud of herself; she had worked long and hard to achieve it.

"Wait…" he said with still wide as she backed away with a smile, waving at him with the fingers on one of her gloved hands as she made her way towards the doorway. "Nothin' happened!"

"Yeah," she said with a grin, blowing him a kiss before she walked out of the room. "I've been practicin'," she called as she headed down the hall. With a blink, he suddenly started and then ran after her with a shout, no matter how late it was, and despite the fact he might have woken somebody up.

"_What_?" he bellowed, running after her. "An' you didn't _tell_ me?"

* * *

Translations:

_Quelque chose_: something.

_Elle este une petite gigolette si vous me demandez…: _She's a little wench if you ask me…

_Je ne pense pas que cela aide_: I don't think that's helping!

_Bien elle est_: Well she is!

* * *

To Our Reviewers:

Lady Suneidesis: Tammi's not really having things going her way at the moment. Yay! The compliment makes me happy!

Windvuur: Thanks! Glad you like it!

Jinxeh: He is well hot! Have you seen the Charlie and the Chocolate film? I 'have' to take my little brother when it comes out over here on Friday, not that I'm complaining! Remy had better be in the new film a lot! Yay fireworks! Mine turn now!

Silverbells: I had a french exam the day after I wrote that last chapter, so it was my way of studying! For the rest of it, you'll have to wait and see (I hate when people say that)

GiveGodtheglory: That look is so cool!


	9. Mother Dearest

The Gambit's Kin

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

A Note: I'm sorry for the wait everyone. Had problems getting my pc to work properly without crashing every ten minutes and have been really busy. But it's finally up… enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 9: Mother Dearest

"Just charge the card cherie." Remy said gently. He and Tammi were standing in the mansion grounds, his hand grasping her wrist, a set of cardboard targets stood about ten feet away from them.

"Okay." Tammi muttered "But if it blows up a tree or something, I'm blaming you." Remy grinned as she charged the card held in her hand with her mostly white powers. He gently moved his hand, so her wrist flicked out, releasing the charged card. It sailed through the air, striking one of the targets and blowing it up, leaving only smouldering ash and smoke.

"Did I hit it?" she asked. Remy grinned, patting her shoulder

"Oui. Right on target." He praised, "Now, get another card out, and charge it. Think you can do it yourself this time?"

Tammi' dropped the pack of cards she way holding at his question and turned her head in the direction of his voice

"My-Myself?" she questioned "But… Remy! I can't see the targets!"

"I know that, Tammi." He replied "I'll aim for you, just flick your wrist like I taught you, okay?" Tammi nodded, dropping to the ground to pick up the cards she'd dropped

"Okay." She said, as Remy dropped beside her and helped to pick up the cards, he managed a lot faster than she did, mainly because he wasn't having to trail his hands over the grass before hitting the plastic covered cardboard. "Je vous dis que cependant; il va frapper un arbre." Remy grinned again, passing her the cards he'd picked up and pulling her to her feet

"You won't miss cherie." He assured "Just let me help you aim." She nodded, slipping all the cards bar one into a pocket in her trench coat. Remy took her wrist again. Positioning it so she would hit one of the targets once she'd flicked her wrist.

"Okay cherie." He said "In your own time." She shook her head, but flicked her wrist, letting the card fly at the end of the movement, the sound of the exploding card reached her ears barley a second later

"Did I miss?" she asked warily

"No, Tammi" Remy replied, grinning with pride as he stared at the smouldering remains "You got it, told you, you wouldn't miss." Tammi smiled and pulled out another card

"Again?" she asked, happy to still be able to use her powers even without sight.

X

They were forced to return inside sometime later when the sky broke into a full out storm. Skidding to a stop in the entrance hall, Remy banged the doors shut and they both collapsed against them.

"That went well." Tammi said brightly "Didn't hit a tree."

"Couldn't have expected better off myself." Remy replied

"Despite you being able to see." Tammi snapped back

"No one would know, the way you were going today." Remy praised. "Now get changed before you freeze to death." Tammi grinned, standing up to give a salute and marched off. As her foot hit the floor with a wet 'squelch', she burst out laughing.

"Been out in the swamp?" a voice teased, Remy turned his head and grinned as Rogue came over

"Som'ing like that." He mumbled stretching his arms and catching Rogue round her legs, forcing her to fall onto his legs. She grimaced

"You're wet." She stated "Go change." Remy pouted, lacing her gloved fingers with his "Now." Rogue ordered with a smile, standing up and pulling him with her "I'm going to see Tammi." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and strode off with determination

"What for?" he yelled after her once he'd gotten over shock of the kiss

"Gotta apologise!" she shouted back

X

Remy was walking down the stairs, his sister's hand on his shoulder, later that night when he stopped suddenly, Tammi almost ploughing into him.

"What?" she asked once she'd regained her balance "Why'd you stop?"

"Remy!" a voice called from the bottom of the stairs "Tammi! Mon Dieu, vous vous êtes développé!" Remy uttered a soft growl, taking Tammi's hand from his shoulder and gripping it in his hand, pulling her gently down the rest of the stairs. He didn't let go of her hand even then, glaring at the woman in front of them instead.

"Que voulez-vous?" Remy snapped at her, she just smiled in return

"Remy!" she scolded with a slight teasing tone "Est-ce que ce de toute façon à parler est à votre mère?" Tammi's hand shook against Remy's, and she turned her head towards the sound of the woman's voice, grateful she had her sunglasses still on

"Mum?" she said softly, the woman nodded, making Remy frown, and spread her arms out, sweeping her daughter into a hug

"Je suis si heureux de vous revoir Tammi! Vous regardez très bien!" she whispered, pulling Tammi tight against her, she peered over the stunned girls shoulder and held a hand out to Remy "he stepped away from her, gently tugging on Tammi's hand

"What do you want?" Remy repeated in English

"I came to see you my child." The woman replied, releasing Tammi from her hold, the girl gratefully step back behind her brother, hiding from the woman who'd just hugged her. Remy looked over to Xavier, who was waiting patiently to one side with Ororo and Logan.

"If you'd like to follow me," Xavier said swiftly, understanding the look "You can talk in my office." The LeBeau children's mother nodded brightly, taking her daughters hand as they followed the Professor. She reached out to take Remy's hand, but he pulled it back angrily, growling slightly under his breath, making Logan smirk.

"Why are you here?" Remy asked as soon as the Professor had left them in his office. Their mother was settling herself elegantly into a chair in front of the desk, Tammi edging backwards until Remy took her arm at the elbow, feeling her relax instantly

"I came to see you my enfant." She replied "You're coming back to live with me."

Remy stiffened at this, his grip on Tammi's arm painfully tightening as he glared into their mothers smiling face

"No." he said simply

"Pardon?" she asked, her smile faltering for a moment

"No." he repeated "We're not going. This is where we're living, it's where we'll stay. It's to late to want us to come and live with you. You should have thought of that when you left."

"Remy" Tammi said quietly

"My boy." His mother said calmly, cutting her daughter off "You have no choice on this, I am your mother"

"You abandoned us, we've managed for years without you. We can last now. We're not going."

"Remy." Tammi repeated, he looked down at her, noting that in his anger he had accidentally charged her trench coat sleeve.

"Sorry Tammi." He muttered apologetically, taking the charge back out of it and releasing her arm, she rubbed it gratefully, returning circulation to the limb

"Tammi wants to come back, to live with her mother. Don't you Tammi?" the woman crooned. Tammi turned her head to the woman's voice and moved behind Remy

"No." she said simply, their mothers face fell and she glanced at the floor for a moment before returning it with a painfully forced smile to her son's face.

"You're just like your father Remy, stubborn. Its sweet to see it in you." She said, her head snapped back to Tammi's face "Pourquoi portez-vous des lunettes de soleil Tammi? Ce n'est pas exactement le survivre à pour elles" she waved a hand to the window, noting the dark sky as thunder rumbled overhead.

Tammi dropped her head, fumbling at the doorknob behind her for a second before spinning and streaking out. Remy yelled after her. Turning for only a moment to glare at his mother, she sat there with her mouth slightly open

"Maintenant vous l'avez fait!" he spat "Pourquoi ne pouvez-vous pas juste nous laisser seuls? Nous sommes heureux sans vous et papa. Et mis toute la substance dans votre dos de sac s'il vous plait." With that he turned and streaked after his sister, leaving the stunned woman in the office.

* * *

Translations:

Je vous dis que cependant; il va frapper un arbre – I'm telling you though; it's going to hit a tree.

Mon Dieu, vous vous êtes développé! – My God you've grown!

Que voulez-vous? - What do you want?

Est-ce que ce de toute façon à parler est à votre mère? – Is that anyway to speak to your mother?

Je suis si heureux de vous revoir Tammi! Vous regardez très bien! - I'm so happy to see you again Tammi! You're looking very well!

Enfant – child

Pourquoi portez-vous des lunettes de soleil Tammi? Ce n'est pas exactement le survivre à pour elles – Why are you wearing sunglasses Tammi? It's not exactly the weather for them.

Maintenant vous l'avez fait! – Now you've done it!

Pourquoi ne pouvez-vous pas juste nous laisser seuls? Nous sommes heureux sans vous et papa. Et mis toute la substance dans votre dos de sac s'il vous plait. - Why can't you just leave us alone? We're happy without you and dad. And put all the stuff in your bag back please.


	10. Family Affairs

Note from Jinxeh: The wait for this chapter was all my fault, guys! I've had writer's block for the longest time for this story and so haven't been very inspired of late to do any typing for it. Also, for anyone interested, I myself have begun a new X-Men: Evolution story titled "Haunted", which is on my account. I have a thing for ghosts, if you cannot tell…yeah, I'm pitiful for advertising one of my stories here, I know. Hehe…

Chapter 10: Family Affairs

"This is just great…" Remy muttered under his breath, jogging out of Professor Xavier's office as his mother protested behind him and then turning left, heading towards the girl's section of the dormitories. "Just wonderful…"

There he had been, thinking that perhaps things would start to settle down for him and Tammi now that the technicalities had been taken care of, only to have all of those pleasant thoughts crumble right in front of his very eyes. This wasn't fair, to either of them really.

Tammi was finally trying to use her powers again, after years of trying to forget she was even a mutant, and was even becoming more comfortable with them again. He had seen the ecstatic look on her face after she had managed to hit the target with only minimal guidance from her and it had even made him happy at that time.

It just wasn't fair to Tammi, to have to go through all of this when she was so young. He had to remind himself that he had barely any room to talk, having been involved with the Thieves and Assassins at such a young age himself, but he had seen the mistakes made on his part because of it. The last thing that he wanted to do was get her involved in any of the same situations that he had been forced into.

"Rogue, Kitty!" said Remy as he turned and corner and almost ran into the two of them, that had been coming from the opposite direction. "Have you seen Tammi?"

"Yeah, she ran that way," said Rogue, jerking her thumb over her shoulder to the hallway behind her. "She seemed upset. Somethin' wrong?"

"Remy explain later," said Remy quickly, squeezing between the two and continuing on his way down the hallway at a brisk pace. "Promise!"

"What's up with him?" asked Kitty in surprise as he turned another corner and was out of sight. Rogue shrugged slightly, but she looked a little unsure of herself.

"I dunno…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Remy walked into Tammi's room, he sighed upon seeing her trying to slide the glass bottom of the window beside her bed up so she could get through it.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he came up from behind her and forcibly pried her fingers from the glass. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to turn around and face him, unmindful of the scowl on her face that she was directing up to where she assumed his face was.

"Tammi gonna go out de window," she said matter-of-factly. "Rogue told me that the pool under dis window like at the old house. If Tammi can do dat once, she can do it again," she said stubbornly. "If I could remember how to get down to de lobby from 'ere, I'd go out the front door!"

"Tammi, you not jumpin' out of de window," said Remy severely, steering her to her bed and making her sit down on the edge. Letting go of her shoulders he crossed his own arms with a sigh and the shake of his head. "Mebe if we jus' don't talk to her, she'll leave."

"Why not?" asked Tammi bitterly. "Dat what's she good at, _non_?"

If Remy had not been so startled at this sudden remark that his sister had just spouted forwards, he might have been able to come up with a response for it. But as it were, he ended up just looking down at her, surprise written all over his young, and slightly scruffy, face.

In all of the time that he had had to think about it since their mother had left them, he had always assumed that he would have been the one to feel the pain of abandonment the most. He had thought that Tammi had been too young to realize that she had been abandoned by a person that was supposed to always be there for her.

He supposed he had never stopped and actually thought about it from her perspective. When he thought about it now, however, he thought that maybe he should have thought about it in that way before. He, at least, had gotten to know his mother somewhat during his younger years. There had been a short time during the course of his childhood that he had had a mother to look up to, but Tammi had never even had that. The only thing that she ever had was a brother that had accidentally caused her to become blind, and a father that was more concerned about the guild that he was a part of to pay attention to the daughter that needed him.

"Yeah…yeah, mebe," said Remy in an oddly strangled voice. She looked up at him in surprise, quickly noticing the rather sour tone that his voice had so suddenly taken on.

"What's wrong?" she asked, standing up and holding her injured arm gingerly in her other hand. Hank McCoy had done a good job of stitching it up and bandaging it accordingly, but it was still tender and difficult to move without sending a twinge up the rest of her arm.

"Not'ing," Remy lied between his teeth. "Just…just not'ing. Trust, Remy; we'll get through dis easily," he added with a tone of voice that was much too eager and fake for Tammi to even begin to believe it. She sighed.

"Dat's it, Tammi goin' out de window," she said, moving towards the window yet again. Remy sighed and then grabbed onto her arm, pulling her with him as he walked across the room and out into the hallway. Yet again, he almost bumped right into Rogue, who had followed him back after she had seen how distressed he had looked the first time.

"Remy, are ya sure you're okay?" she asked worriedly, looking down at his sister as she did, who had her head bowed as though looking down to the ground.

"_Peachy_," muttered Remy darkly. "Rogue, did you see a woman leave Professor Xavier's office after we did? Brown hair? Semi-expensive clothing? Expression on her face suggestin' dat suggests she t'inks she's better den she really is?"

"Um…yeah," said Rogue, a little surprised by the bitterness in his voice. "I think Ororo took her downstairs into the rec room or somethin'…what's goin' on? Who is that woman?" she asked as she followed after the two LeBeaus as Remy set off down the hallway. Tammi hardly had a choice in the matter; Remy was holding onto the upper part of her uninjured arm.

"Dat no-good woman is our mother," said Remy between gritted teeth as he pulled Tammi with him down the hall and to the stairway. "But it don't matter, cause she's gonna leave right now."

"Oh…" said Rogue with widened green eyes. "Well…that's a…_lovely_ explanation right there…"

Remy didn't even bother replying; and nor did Tammi. She just settled with sighing and keeping her head bowed as she was pulled along. She wasn't even putting up a fight at all, seeming content to allow herself to be pulled around on this little endeavor. Rogue could just barely make out the sound of Tammi muttering to herself under her breath, counting her steps as they all made their way down the stairs, across the lobby, and into the right hallway that would eventually take them into the rec room.

"What are you going to say to her?" asked Rogue in concern. "You're not just gonna go off on her, are you?"

"I'm gonna tell 'er to leave," said Remy simply. "And then, if she don't listen…mebe I will go off on her," he said sharply. He stopped right before the entrance of the rec room, to find Ororo, his mother, and Logan all talking within.

"All I wanted to do was come here and get my children back," their mother was saying with a sigh, trying her best to sound pitiful. "Or at least my little Tammi. I know that Remy is older now…but he's still my son!"

"If you really cared dat much, you wouldn't a' left in the first place," said Remy, glaring as he pulled Tammi into the rec room with Rogue right in his heels. "And if ya knew what was best, you'd leave dis place too."

"Remy, don't be like that, my son," said his mother weakly, turning around to face him with woeful eyes. "I am sorry for leaving you those years ago…but I had no choice! You saw what it was like with the Guilds! I was afraid!"

"So were we!" Remy spat, as Tammi finally managed to pry his fingers off of her arm and stepped back a couple of feet with a sour expression on her face. "You couldn't take us wit' you? Or Tammi, at least?"

"I'm sorry…" said the woman in the same, weak sort of voice. "But it all turned out all right, _non_? Just look at you two! You've grown so much!" she added in a slightly pleased voice. Tammi shrugged and looked down again, scuffing the floor with the toe of one of her shoes, muttering something incoherent under her breath.

"Dat's not de point," said Remy harshly as Rogue came up behind him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You coulda saved us a lot a' pain here, especially for her!" he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to Tammi with an angry scowl.

Tammi still didn't say anything; willing herself not to at the time. If anything, she wanted to bring to her brother's attention that he too had also left her during a time of need, but she didn't. The point still stood that, although he had not always been there for her, he at least had come back.

She wouldn't soon forget that he had risked his own life in order to fly down to New Orleans and save her own. There was no way that she could have survived all on her own in that burning house if he had not come along and gotten her out of her own room. _He_ had done something great for her. Her mother had done absolutely _nothing_.

"I don't see what the problem is now," said their mother, waving a hand dismissively. "You are fine now, and so is she…what is it that they say again? Oh, yes! No harm, no foul!" she said brightly.

"Oh no…" muttered Logan, running a hand through his hair tiredly as a murderous expression made its way onto Remy's face. "Look, Cajuns," he said, quickly walking up besides the woman and putting a hand between Remy and her carefully. "You need to calm down, especially you, Remy," he said sharply. Remy, however, chose to ignore him.

"_Leave_," he said darkly, pointing one shaking finger to the exit doorway of the rec room, his deep red-on-black eyes boring holes into her own normal ones coldly. "Right now."

"Remy…" started Tammi tiredly, finally sidling up next to him with an uncertain expression on her face. "Stop yellin', please…"

"You see?" asked the woman with only a little cheeriness. "Tammi doesn't think I should leave!"

"Tammi didn't say dat," replied the young Cajun girl in a mutter, wiping the smirk off of her mother's face. "I jus' don't t'ink dat yellin' is gonna solve anyt'ing here."

"She is right," said Ororo, stepping into the conversation quickly. "This can all be settled with anyone having to raise their voices."

"It can be settled right now if she just leaves," said Remy, glaring at his mother once more. "She don't even know what any a' us had to go through after she left, so she ain't got no room to be talkin' to us."

"That's not true," said his mother evenly. "I know what goes on in the Guilds; I was a part of it once too, remember? I won't pretend like you haven't had it bad…but you're better now. Livin' in dis place here, getting' an education…"

"You don't know nothin'," said Remy between gritted teeth. "Remy hasn't been here long; neither has Tammi. She 'asn't even been here for a week yet. Ws livin' with our father dearest," he said darkly.

"Oh!" said the woman in surprise. It was obvious that she really was surprised by this as well. "You…Tammi, you were in that house to?" she asked, aghast. "I read 'bout it in de newspaper…s'why I'm here. The one dat caught fire and burned down?"

"Oui," replied Tammi quietly, still keeping her gaze directed down to the floor. "Dat would be de one…"

"Tammi, take off your glasses," said Remy suddenly, gripping her arm once more rather tightly. She looked up to him like she assumed he had gone completely insane…which she actually did.

"No!" she said quickly, her eyes widened behind the oversized sunglasses that she wore. "Remy, why?"

"Show 'er what 'appened to you!" said Remy with a nod, looking between the girl and her mother with another scowl.

"What happened to her?" asked their mother, instantly a little worried. She had known that there was something strange going on as soon as she had seen the sunglasses that her daughter was wearing, but had dismissed it as the child just being strange. Tammi had certainly been a strange girl during her younger days, always hiding away into cupboards and other crawlspaces with picture books and the few little toys that she had had in her possession. "Tammi, what happened?" she asked again, looking down at her daughter for an answer this time.

"Not'ing happened," said Tammi quickly, her mouth then set into a firm frown. "Remy, stop it."

"You wanna know what 'appened to her?" asked Remy angrily. "She's blind now, dat's what 'appened!" he shouted, ignoring the suddenly shocked look upon her face before continuing as though he had said nothing at all out of the ordinary. "Dat's right! If you woulda taken us wit' you, then none a' that woulda happened!"

"Remy, don't blame dat on her," said Tammi in nothing but a mumble. "It's not worth it. Wasn't even her fault, and you know it…"

"I…I had no idea…" said the woman weakly, one hand over her heart. She looked to be close to tears, but Remy wasn't going to let that affect him. He knew her too well to believe that at all. It wasn't like she had been a completely horrible mother when she had been around…but she hadn't really been the best one either. She lied through her teeth most of the time, and so he really had no reason to expect that she was telling the truth now. "Tammi…you're blind?"

"Oui…" replied Tammi again with a sigh, removing her sunglasses and looking up at her. She wished she could have seen the expression on her mother's face when she, Tammi, looked at her with blank white eyes, outlined firmly and ringed with scars and discolored skin.

"How did this happen?" her mother demanded, actually sounding angry now. She glared at Remy with strong vehemence as she did, as though to blame him for the whole thing.

"She 'ad to use 'er powers," replied Remy angrily. "The house was attacked, an' I told 'er to use her powers. She held onto somethin' too long, and it exploded an' took her sight. If you just woulda taken us with you when you left, then neither of us woulda had to of been there for that!"

"That's not my fault!" replied the woman, now glaring once more. "You don't understand the situation I was in! I was frightened!"

"So where we…" mumbled Tammi under her breath, so that no one else could hear here. That was not a statement that could have been taken to be true to the situation; she really had been too young to remember much about her mother. But she had grown up with her father among the Thieves' Guild, and she had known the fear well enough then. And to think, she could have grown up in a different way if her mother had not left her there to rot…

"Dat's no excuse," said Remy angrily. "You're disgusting! Why are you even here? Is it because da' is dead? You've got nothing to _fear_ now, is dat it?"

"I came for my children!" she said, almost crying by this time. "Or Tammi, at least! For goodness _sake_, Remy; you can't raise a child! Especially not one that is blind! Please, just let me take her with me again and-"

"No."

The word was said so quickly and so firmly, that it stopped the woman in mid-sentence. Her eyes went wide in disbelief and the blatant disapproval of his statement, and she found herself moving her lips as though to speak, though not a word came out. But Remy was unyielding; he was unmoving and firm.

"No," he said again forcefully. "You aren't taking her _anywhere_. Tammi's gonna stay right here, with _me_. Remy be getting' guardianship of her now, and so you can't take her," he said, his eyes boring holes into her own. Distantly, he was aware of his sister slipping one of her thin hands into one of his and giving it a reassuring squeeze at his words, which he returned.

"You're not her parent," said their mother in a very shaky voice. "You can't do that."

"Yes I can," said Remy acidly. "And it's legal to. Remy over eighteen, so dere's no problem dere. There's nothin' more you can do here, so just leave."

"I don't want to leave without my daughter," said the woman in a somewhat stronger voice. "No…I _won't_ leave without her."

"You don't got no choice in de matter," said Remy surely. "Sides, you getting' off easy wit' dis," he added as a rather bitter afterthought. He was thinking about all that was going on at the moment as he said this. As far as his dislike for his mother went, that did not exactly mean that he wanted her dead, of all things. And with everything that had happened with Tammi, what with her killing that mob crony and the chance that that could come back to haunt her, it could have gotten dangerous for Tammi and anyone around her if it did.

"I…I…" she started, before shaking her head and grabbing her back from the sofa to where it had been deposited. "You know what? This is just _fine_," she snapped, instantly losing her faked woe-begotten expression and voice and exposing herself for what she was really like most of the time. "I'll leave, but I _will_ be back. I'm comin' back for my child," she added in a breaking voice before pushing aside Rogue and Remy and walking out of the rec room huffily.

"I'll make sure she actually leaves," sighed Logan, sidling past the lot of them and walking out after her calmly.

"Tammi think she want to throw up now…" said Tammi weakly, letting go of Remy's hand and moving forwards with her hands outstretched until she nudged the sofa with her foot and took a seat shakily.

"I'll second that," said Rogue, making a face. "Remy, you're mother is one bitter woman, you know that? That was so fake…"

"You telling me," Remy sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I jus' hope dat woman don't keep to her word 'bout comin' back…"

"She never came back before; why would she now?" asked Tammi sourly, making Ororo raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"I do not understand…why did she leave in the first place?" she asked, looking to Remy for an answer. He shrugged.

"She said she was scared," he replied simply. "Stupid answer…we were all scared…dat didn't mean she had to _leave_ us…"

"This isn't over," Tammi mumbled under her breath. "She say she gonna come back…then she gonna come back. This ain't like it was last time. Now she'd just come back to take me and spite you. Oi…being under eighteen _sucks_…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Julianne LeBeau shuddered and crossed her arms protectively, glancing around the dingy alley that she stood in with an expression of contempt written all over her now slightly pale face. Right in front of her stood two burly men, both clad in expensive-looking black suits and with matching crew cuts, their hands held behind their backs and their legs held firmly apart from one another, steadying them there like rocks. As imposing as they were however, it was not them that the woman was worrying about.

"Mrs. LeBeau," said a pleasant, and yet bone-chilling voice from behind her, making her shudder again and turn tentatively to face the man that stood in the alley. He was also flanked by two gorilla-like men on either side and just behind him, but she tried not to act like this was disturbing her at all. "How lovely to see you. I trust your visit with your children went well?"

"Please Mr. Kirsch," she said weakly. "I…I tried my best, I promise you that…but my son, he wasn't going to change his mind. Please…I don't want to have to do this," she whimpered, beginning to cry.

"We made a deal," said Kirsch severely, stepping forwards and grasping her chin in his hand. Firmly, he forced her to look up at him with shining eyes. "You give us the girl, and you don't have to die. We both agreed that that was the more…pleasant…option, didn't we?"

"But she's still my daughter!" Julianne sobbed as he took his hand away again. "I…I…this feels so _wrong_!"

"That little brat you call a daughter killed my _son_, Mrs. LeBeau," said Kirsch, suddenly losing his fake warm façade and becoming cold. "We know this for a fact. Bruno over there was the one that found his body in her room, at the house before it burned down. We _know_ she killed him. It's a fair trade, isn't it? I lost my son…you give up a daughter that you never even wanted."

"But…I can't…" said the woman feebly, sniffing deeply. "I can't even get to her…"

"Don't you worry about that, Mrs. LeBeau," said the man with a sudden and deep smile. "I have many…connections in these parts, you know. I can have something drawn up to transfer legal guardianship to you easily enough. All you have to do is take her away from this Institute that she lives in so we can keep to our part of the deal. Unless…you don't want to keep to our deal?" he suddenly asked with a cold glare, making Julianne take an involuntary step back, shaking her head quickly.

"N-no!" she said hastily. "No…I can do this…I _swear_ I can…" she said in a feeble voice. "J-just get the p-papers and I can do it…"


	11. Lessons in Life

The Gambit's Kin 

Note from Jinxeh: Hey, people! You may have noticed the lack of updating going on for this story, and both Toxic-Beetle and I apologize profusely for it. The thing is, this chapter was supposed to be written by Toxic-Beetle, but she has been having some severe computer issues lately, and so we figured that I'd just write it, as long as my writer's block is leaving me alone. Let's all wish Toxic some luck with her computer issues! Enjoy the chapter, guys!

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Chapter 11: Lessons in Life

"I don't get it," said Tammi, a grim frown pasted on her face as she allowed for her fingers to drift slowly across the rigid plastic sheets that were on front of her, on the kitchen table. "Dey just little _bumps_…how Tammi supposed tah tell what dey mean?"

Jean Grey, who was sitting next to her at the table, looked about as confused as she did. In her hand she held a flat piece of plastic and was looking at all of the patterns on it with an unsure expression upon her young face. The patterns were all made of small dots, and underneath them were what they meant—but Tammi was having more than just a little trouble understanding them when all she could do was feel the actual raised bumps with her fingers.

"Ah…well…actually, I'm not really sure," said Jean after a moment, looking at Tammi. "Maybe we should start with numbers first, and then work our way up to words and letters…"

"Brail _sucks_," Tammi mumbled, letting her hand drop to her lap and allowing for her head to fall with a thump atop the plastic sheets on the table. "I want my eyesight back…"

Jean had nothing to say to this, instead settling for a sympathetic smile in Tammi's direction, which the girl could not even see anyways.

It was the night after the rather disastrous family reunion that had taken place between Julianne, Remy, and Tammi LeBeau at the Xavier Institute. Currently, Remy was in a training session with some of the other, older trainees excluding Jean Grey, and so she had decided to start working with Tammi on the brail that Professor Xavier had suggested. But, despite what Jean might have been hoping, it was much more difficult for the young Cajun girl to grasp than could have been expected.

"Well…we'll try more tomorrow, okay?" asked Jean with a slight sigh as Tammi raised her head and shook it sadly. Jean gathered up the sheets and put them back into the tan-colored packet that they had come in. "It'll be all right, Tammi—we'll figure it out."

"Tammi filled wit' joy at the prospect," the younger girl muttered under her breath, getting out of the chair and walking over towards the counter, one hand stretched out as she counted under her breath. "One…two…t'ree…four…five…"

Jean had noticed that whenever the girl walked anywhere, she had been counting under her breath. Of course, Kurt had, at first, suggested that it was some sort of obsessive-compulsive tendency but Jean had been able to realize that she was counting her steps so she could better memorize the layout of the Xavier Institute. She could walk around the school with a hand on her brother's shoulder for only so long, after all.

"Hey, Tammi…" said Jean as she set the packet on the kitchen table and stood up. "If you don't mind me asking this…have you been blind since birth?"

It was a mystery to most at the Institute, about what exactly had happened to Remy LeBeau's kid sister to cause her blindness. It was well known that Professor Xavier knew the reasoning behind this, as well as the other teachers, Remy, and even Rogue (as well as Tammi, of course), but the other students didn't know. Those who did were hesitant to talk about it, aware that it wasn't their story to tell. No one dared to ask Remy anymore; his face had always taken on a rather dark expression when it was brought up. No one had yet to go up to Tammi and ask either.

Jean was not asking this rather personal question simple for the sake of being nosy. No, she really wanted to know what had happened to the girl because she wanted to know what the past of Tammi LeBeau might have been like, so she could get a better understanding of the girl was really like. She had just spent the last hour or so trying to help introduce the girl to brail; she figured she might as well ask the question that everyone had been wanting to.

"_Non_," answered Tammi, her counting immediately ceased when she had reached the counter. She then raised her hand and trailed it across the cupboards there, counting three doors until she found the one that had the food in it. When she opened it, it took her a moment to get her hand upon a small jar of unopened jelly. "Dis' peanut butter?"

"No, that's the jelly," said Jean, though she stayed by the table. "The peanut butter is right next to where you found the jelly."

The girl promptly made the switch and then closed the door. Jean watched in slight interest as she counted two steps to the microwave, and then pulled the bread bag from atop the microwave. The drawer that held the silverware was right in front of her, so by opening it and feeling around carefully (in case there were sharp kitchen knives inside as well) she managed to find a blunt butter knife and extract it before she shut the drawer again.

"Then…if you don't mind me asking and everything…how did it happen?" she asked, biting her lip slightly in case she was delving into a subject that Tammi didn't want to get into. Jean could, if she wanted to, simply go around those who knew about how the girl had lost her eyesight and use her psychic powers to find out that way—but she wasn't that sort of person. She was actually more willing to ask and not receive an answer than she was willing to go sneaking around in other people's minds in order to find out.

Jean still remembered the expression on Tammi's face when her sunglasses had first been knocked off, allowing for everyone to see her blank, white eyes. The girl had been absolutely horrified about it, which was easily seen. Enough to run away from everyone, anyways. It was obvious that she hadn't wanted anyone to know, at least not then, that she was blind…so perhaps it was a rather sore subject for her, or at least a personal one.

Surprisingly, Tammi simply shrugged as she opened the jar of peanut butter and dipped the knife into it before she spread the substance onto the bread slices she had laid out on the countertop.

"Tammi was twelve, new wit' de mutant power t'ing…and made a mistake," she said nonchalantly as she dipped the knife into the jar once more. "Assassins attacked de house, an' I had to use my powers—held onto somet'ing too long, an' so it go boom in Tammi's hand."

"Assassins?" Jean echoed, unsure if she had heard this correctly. "Someone sent…assassins after you?"

"Assassins _Guild_," Tammi corrected her as she put peanut butter on the other slice. She couldn't stand peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, preferring just the peanut butter in the bread instead. She would have preferred a cheese-and-mustard sandwich, but she really didn't feel like moving her hands around the cold interior of the refrigerator in order to find the ingredients. "Enemies of the T'ieves Guild."

This made everything suddenly click in Jean's mind. She had always known that Remy LeBeau had been a thieving sort of person (and for all she knew, he probably still was) and so the words 'Thieves Guild' made sense to her. However, now she had to wonder how bad the supposed rift between the Guilds was…especially if these assassins had been willing to attack a twelve-year-old child.

"'Ello, ladies," said Remy LeBeau, that familiar grin on his face as he sauntered into the kitchen at that time, his hands in the pocket of his long trench coat.

"Hello Remy," said Jean as he neared the table, before she suddenly shoved the tan packet of brail into his hands. "I have to help the new recruits with the next training session—why don't you try some of this?"

By the time she had finished asking this she was already out of the kitchen door and out of sight, only her voice ringing back towards the kitchen. Remy simply blinked in amusement and then shrugged, tossing the packet onto the table from over his shoulder haphazardly.

"You get any a' dat brail stuff?" he asked interestedly, suddenly running forward and then hopping up so that he landed in a sitting position on the counter, his legs dangling over the side.

"Non," answered Tammi tiredly. "Not really, anyways. But dat Jean girl say dat it can't be dat hard and dat she gonna help me in any way she can. 'Er enthusiasm is actually kinda frightening…"

Remy made no comment to this. He wasn't sure what he could have said to it, all in all. He knew that Tammi had never really gotten the enthusiasm and support that she had needed at a young age when it came to her studies and education. Briefly stated, their drive for education had been extremely…lax, if anything. Remy had learned how to read of his own accord, sneaking into his father's study when he had been young and trying to read all of the rather boring books he had on the shelves.

Some of the books had been interesting, however. He had immersed himself in the workings of Dickens and had gotten through many Mark Twain books by the time he was eleven. When he had found the Tolkien books he had read them all in a matter of only a couple of weeks, whenever he could sneak in the study. When Tammi had expressed interest in reading as well, he had taught her. Unfortunately, she had not been able to pick it up as easily as he, though she did eventually learn, and so her interest in reading had never really been very great.

Either way, their education had never been something that their father had been concerned about, and Remy couldn't remember their mother ever being too concerned about it either when she had been around. He supposed that after so many years of such leniency, they had become used to not having to work at such things.

"So…" said Tammi after a moment of silence, turning around with a peanut butter sandwich and looking in the direction she assumed that her brother was. "You hear anyt'ing else from mother-dearest?"

"_Non_," Remy answered darkly. "An' Remy hope he never does. Dat woman bad news, Tammi. You'd better hope dat she don't bother wit' us anymore."

Truthfully, he knew this would never happen. He knew that their mother was never going to leave them be, since she had gone through all of the trouble of tracking them down at the Xavier Institute.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Here's what's going to happen, Miss. LeBeau," said Mr. Kirsch tiredly, barely even sparing a glance at the distressed woman that was sitting across from him as they sat at a table in the lobby of a hotel. Staying in Bayville was utterly disgusting for Kirsch and he knew it—but he needed to be close to the school in order to ensure the death of the girl that had killed his son. The hotel had to do for such a short notice. "_I've_ gotten the fake papers drawn up, and _you_ are going to use them to get that girl of yours back from your son."

"Now, _legally_ there is nothing that your son can do to stop you now that it appears you have the proper documentation," Kirsch continued. Across from him, Mrs. LeBeau was shaking slightly; her hands shook erratically as she sipped from the mug of tea he had ordered to be brought to her. Her hair was in disarray; her eyes were sunken into her skull, and she seemed more pale than usual. Obviously the nature of what she knew she was about to do was taking a toll on her.

It wasn't that Julianne LeBeau was a cruel woman. It wasn't as though she felt nothing for her daughter, and was willing to give her up just because she didn't care. Now, she thought that she was worse than Medea from the Greek story, who killed her children because she hated their father more than she loved her children. It was similar in a way—she valued her own life above that of her children.

When each of her two children had been born, she had known without a doubt that she loved them. But still, when she had finally had enough of her life with the Thieve's Guild, she had not taken them with her. She had become sick of her life—and her children had been a part of her life, so therefore they could not come with her. Besides that, it would have been too risky to take them, as they would have slowed her down and made her chances of actual escape decrease. They had their life, and she had just wanted to live her own.

But that did not mean that she did not have her problems with what she was about to do. She still loved Tammi—perhaps not as much as she loved herself, but the love was still there _somewhere_—and didn't want to hurt her…but what choice did she have when given the current situation?

"We still have to worry about what might happen if things take a turn for the worse—or if your son decides to use force to stop us from taking your daughter," said Kirsch, leaning back in his seat and sighing slightly. "He's a powerful mutant, we know, and if he really wants his sister to stay with him then he'll fight for her. He obviously cares deeply for her, since he risked rescuing her from the burning building that was her home. He won't be willing to let her go easily. _That_ is why we're going to give you some help," he added with a wicked grin, looking over his shoulder to the man that stood at his right.

He was a mammoth of a man, dressed in a dark suit and with his almost black hair swept back and tied in a ponytail. He fiercely resembled a Neanderthal, with the way his eyebrows jutted out and the way his lips were pursed, in accordance with the defined square shape of his jaw. Just looking at him caused Mrs. LeBeau to shudder; he glowered down at her and cracked his knuckles.

"It's amazing what a police uniform can do to a man," said Kirsch, raising an eyebrow as his grin grew. "He'll simply be your police escort, there to make sure that the law is enforced."

Mrs. LeBeau simply gulped and nodded in response, not daring to take her eyes away from the colossal man that was soon going to be her 'police escort'.

"If your son makes trouble, Tommy here will stop him," said Kirsch cheekily.

"But…but de man dat runs de school…" Mrs. LeBeau tried feebly. "He can read minds, can't he? Isn't he dat psychic professor that everyone was always talkin' about? He'll be able to tell what's going on…"

"Which is exactly why we're waiting until he won't be at the _school_," said Kirsch, this time sounding a little tired. "Our sources tell us that he and the redheaded young woman that also has those psychic powers attend the monthly Bayville school board meetings—since so many of the young ones at this _Institute_ attend the school, they like to know what's going on. Apparently the next one is tomorrow night—_impeccable_ timing, really…"

"S-so…tomorrow night…a-all right…" Mrs. LeBeau whispered, her eyes brimming with tears, which she tried to hide by finally looking away from Tommy and looking down at her lap instead.

"I'm glad we understand each other, Mrs. LeBeau," said Kirsch, smiling as he got up from his seat and brushed some imaginary dust off of his spotless suit. "Tommy will meet you here tomorrow night—and he _will_ have the papers."


	12. Family Matter

The Gambit's Kin  


A/N: Apologies for the long wait. But I got there eventually hey? I stopped procrastinating, and actually did this. Hope you like it.

Disclaimer: We don't own the X-Men. Now we're sad. We hope you're happy. We're not.

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Chapter 12: Family Matter

Tammi snapped awake, her dark eyes peering around the room. A weak moon shone through the dirty glass window of her room, dimly illuminating it and making it seem eerie. She sighed, her eyes scanning the room quickly before moving up to the ceiling, and she began to count the long, violent cracks there. After a while she sighed and pulled herself from beneath the flimsy bed sheet and stretched in a cat like way. A sudden creak came from outside the room and she froze, her arms behind her head, her back arched. Then a smile quickly came to her face; it would just be one of the other thieves moving around, probably one coming back from a late night job, or a sentry checking the corridors.

She lowered her arms and walked to the bedroom door. As she passed by the mirror, the image of a small, skinny ten year old girl with tired red-on-black eyes, mussed hair and black pajamas padded silently in the same direction, a look of sleepy determination set on her face. Tammi pulled open her bedroom door slowly, aware that doing so with any amount of speed would mean that the hinges would squeak loudly in distress, and without doubt wake the entire household. One final glance into her room, and she stepped out of her room.

And into solid darkness.

She couldn't even see her hand in font of her face, yet she knew it was there as she had just lifted it as soon as the suffocating blackness had taken over her vision. Disorientated, she stumbled backwards slightly and spun around, putting her hand out to grab the door handle she knew was there, to return to the room that, no matter how badly lit, still held some comforting light. She brought her hand down to where the handle was, and her fingers closed around thin air.

Panic evident in her breathing, Tammi raised her hands so her palms were facing away from her and slowly shuffled forwards. After what seemed to be an endless time, she realized that the door would not appear before her. She was in a long corridor. And she was blind.

With a cry, she staggered backwards, tripping over her own feet and sprawling onto her back. Raising herself into a sitting position, she shook her head, attempting to calm herself and think about where she was. After several moments of thought, she slowly raised herself once again to her feet, stretching her hands out to her sides so that her fingers brushed the walls. She began a slow walk down the length of the corridor, turning her head blindly.

When her fingers hit a material that was different from the fairly smooth wallpaper her fingers had been grazing, she allowed herself a small moment of triumph, her fingers sliding across the wood of the door until they hit the cool metal of a handle. Grinning in delight, she twisted the handle and practically threw herself into the room.

Light and sight did not return to her as she had hoped; instead, intense heat hit her like a brick, smoke forcing its way into her airway and pushing pure air from her lungs. She coughed, and in confusion walked forwards, her hands searching for any clue of where she was. She coughed again, smoke beginning to sting her eyes and making them water. A loud noise behind her made her pause for a moment before she continued her search. A louder noise, the sound of the door she had entered through being slammed open and hitting the wall forcefully, made her spin around in surprise. She heard the sound of footsteps coming towards her, a low tone warning her not to move, and her breath hitched in her throat as she realized that she was back at the manor, the place was on fire, an Assassin with a knife was before her, _and_ she had no weapon.

Muttering a curse, she darted backwards, and heard a grunt from the man as he missed her by barely more than an inch. Working out that there was only about a meter between the two of them, Tammi leapt forwards, using the momentum to elbow the assassin in the chest and barrel on past him. She felt a sting in her arm and knew that he had got her arm; she felt her legs being swept out from beneath her and fell to the floor, smashing her chin painfully onto the hard wood floor and biting back a cry as she turned, knowing that the assassin had recovered from her attempt at saving herself and was advancing on her. She was going to die, and Remy wouldn't get their in time to save her...

Tammi shot up with a strangled scream and sat there, the bed sheets gathered up in her hands as she gasped for breath. Slowly calming herself down, she turned her head in a hope of remembering where she was. Her memory slowly caught up to her and told her that it was her room in Xavier's, she was safe from the Assassins, and Remy was only a few halls down. She sighed, and brushed her tears away angrily before pushing her hair away from her face. Sighing again, she lay back down and closed her eyes, only to snap them open again several minutes later, staring unseeingly up at the ceiling, counting imaginary cracks there. Ten minutes passed and she muttered a curse in French, untangling herself from the sheets and pulling herself from the bed, quickly getting changed and grabbing her sunglasses before slipping from the dark room.

X

It was some time later that Ororo Munroe entered the kitchen, noting with surprise that Tammi was sitting before one of the counters, the tan packet open before her and a Braille card in her hands, her fingers drifting over the bumps there.

"Hello Tammi." She said cautiously, hoping not to startle the girl who seemed absorbed in the Braille card. Tammi's head snapped up, and she slowly nodded.

"'Lo, Ms Munroe," She mumbled, before sighing and tossing the Braille card onto the counter with the others.

"How long have you been awake?" Ororo asked, pulling two glasses from a cupboard.

"Dunno," Came the quiet reply "What's de time?"

"Half past six," Ororo placed a glass in front of the girl, who carefully reached out towards the sound and wrapped her fingers around the glass. "It's orange juice."

"_Merci_," Tammi thanked her, nodding her head and taking a deep drink from the glass, draining three quarters of it away before pausing for breath. "Tammi must have been awake for at least an hour," She mused. Ororo raised an eyebrow, sitting opposite the girl.

"Can't sleep?" she asked. Tammi nodded, wrapping her arms around herself and suddenly looking uncomfortable.

"Had _un etrange_ dream," She mumbled "Couldn't get back to sleep after," She turned her head away from Ororo, looking towards the refrigerator

"You're settling in alright?" Ororo asked eventually. Tammi turned back to look at her, even though her eyes were sightless.

"_Oui_," She said after several moments. "Tammi be fine. Everybody 'ere is helping Tammi get used to de place." She tightened her arms around herself, gazing sightlessly down into her lap.

"Jean's teaching you Braille," Ororo said as the girl lapsed into sullen silence. "How's that going?" Tammi's expression became one of disgust.

"Tammi doesn't see de point of it," She admitted, reaching out and gently poking the cards that sat in front of her. "What's it supposed to _do_ for me?" Ororo stifled a grin at the girls look.

"Wouldn't you like to read books?" she asked. "Take some classes?"

"S'ppose." Tammi shrugged, picking up the discarded sheet and running her finger across some of the bumps before tossing it away from her with a defeated sigh.

"I don't see de point," She muttered angrily, rising from the chair and moving slowly across the room, counting as she went. She paused at the door and added. "Tammi's gonna go find Remy." As she departed Ororo glanced at Logan, who had snuck in not long after she had and had been leaning silently against the fridge ever since.

"Kid needs confidence," He grunted, answering her silent question "Or to have a talk with someone. Preferably someone who isn't her brother..."

"She's not exactly the most _enthusiastic_ of people," Ororo agreed, plucking a Braille card from the pile and running her fingers lightly over its surface as though testing it. "She just needs to get used to things. It's hard enough for the children when they're new. But not being able to see either…" she trailed off and fell into thought.

X

Remy stepped from his room and grinned. Snapping the door closed, he checked his pockets for the packs of cards and the retractable staff that were always there before smirking in satisfaction. His whole being was intent on finding Rogue and annoying her until she lashed out at him today, something that he relished to do. However, the plans left his mind quickly as he reached the end of the hall and spotted Tammi sitting on a window seat, her face turned towards the window.

He frowned, and slowly walked towards her, trying to figure out why she was sitting there. Perhaps she had gone lost and was waiting for someone to come and tell her where she was. It wouldn't have been the first time that had happened. Kitty had found her wandering aimlessly around the rec room the night before, trying to figure out where the fridge was because she thought she was in the kitchen.

"'Lo, Remy," Tammi muttered, barely audible even as he got closer.

"'Ello Tammi," He replied, sitting beside her on the seat and looking out of the window. Jean was standing beside the black van, talking to Scott as he adjusted the mirrors in his car, both waiting for the younger students to join them so they could go to the school. He had forgotten that it was a weekday – he'd have to postpone the taunting of Rogue until she returned, he supposed.

"What's up?" he asked his sister. She turned to face him, appearing to contemplate the answer.

"De sky," She said sarcastically after a few moments. "Unless Tammi has missed somethin' and it has fallen in de last three years, it should still be up dere." Remy rolled his eyes at her sarcasm, and reached out, grasping her shoulder gently.

"What's wrong?" he asked. She shook her head, and he frowned. She was a horrible liar...

"Nothin'," She lied, then, knowing that he was looking at with disbelief, she added, "Tammi just bored, dat's all."

"Den lets do somethin'," Remy replied, standing up and tugging on her arm, "Put some music on, annoy de 'ell outta Logan, play de echo game…"

"De echo game?" Tammi asked in confusion. Remy shrugged and grinned.

"Remy been watching ''Ouse of Flying Daggers' too much," he admitted. "But come on, dere's plenty to do, we'll find somethin'." He tugged again at her arm once again, and when she turned back to the window, he let her arm free and slumped beside her in defeat.

"Je suis Tammi désolé," he said quietly. "Remy got you into all dis, and I know you hate it, but Remy'll make it up to you." There was a silence between the two, and then Tammi shifted, leaning back against the window and turning to Remy.

"Don't hate it." She whispered with a slight shrug. "Tammi likes being 'ere." She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, turning her head once again to the window. "Had a dream last night," she muttered. "More like a nightmare. Just left me a bit unsettled. Tammi be alright dough," She added slowly. Remy studied her for a minute, before taking her shoulder again, reassuring her silently. After another minute of silence, Tammi pulled away from his grasp and stood up, a smirk on her face.

"Tammi really is bored," She stated. "And she likes de idea of annoying de 'ell outta Logan…" Remy grinned and leapt to his feet, taking his sister's hand and pulling her down the corridor in search of Logan.

X

Dusk was just falling as a sleek black car drove up to the large gates at the entrance of the Institute. The driver's window rolled down and a pale hand, clad in expensive looking rings and with manicured nails, slowly came out of the car and pressed the call button on the intercom set into the wall. The hand pulled away quickly as though it had been stung, and the speaker crackled into life.

"Who's there?" a gruff voice asked.

"I-it's Julianne LeBeau," The rather timid reply came from within the car. "I've come for my daughter."

"Look lady-" Logan started angrily, only to be cut off.

"I've got the papers." Julianne stated strongly. There was a definite pause on the other end before she heard what sounded like a barrage of muttered curses. She smiled nervously—this man seemed to realize that fighting the law would do him no good here. She heard Logan sigh, and the gates swung open slowly. The Cajun woman glanced at Tommy—the man looking incredibly out of place in a police uniform—before turning back to the windscreen and starting the car up, driving it up the drive and pulling it to a stop in front of the steps of the mansion. She sighed as she turned the ignition off, but left the keys in the car.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and pulled open the car door, opening her eyes as she stepped onto the gravel driveway. Tommy walked around beside her, a briefcase in his hands and a gun at his hip. He raised an eyebrow as the sound of an explosion reached their ears from the backyard of the immense building, followed by another only seconds after. Some loud cheering quickly followed, during which a couple more explosions came. Looking somewhat baffled by this, the two adults walked up the steps to the door. Logan stood there, a cigar clamped between his teeth and a murderous look in his eyes.

"What's the cop for?" he growled. The woman cringed before him but Tommy stepped forwards, staring down at the Canadian with a slight sneer on his face.

"Just here to make sure that there's no trouble," He grunted lowly. "And that Mrs. LeBeau 'ere gets her kid." Logan growled, his fist clenched as though his was going to punch the 'police officer' before him, but thought better of it and instead turned his head. Ororo stood behind him, her eyes wide as she stared at Tommy in disbelief.

"'Ro, take them to the rec room," he grunted. "I'll go get the Cajuns."

X

Remy grinned at his sister and charged up the card he held in his hand. Tammi shared his grin, also charging a card. A set of targets were fifty feet in front of them, several just charred remains.

"Four steps to de right, Tammi," Remy muttered. "Den straight in front of you." Tammi nodded mutely and shuffled to the side; she flicked her wrist, letting the card she held fly. It whipped through the air quickly, hitting the target and blowing it up with a tremendous _boom_. Remy set his card flying only seconds after Tammi's; it hit the target beside hers and the crowd of mutant teenagers around them erupted into cheers. Tammi laughed, and pulled another card from her pocket.

"Where to now?" she asked with a devilish smirk.

"Turn right, and two steps left," Remy replied. Tammi obeyed, facing the new target with a determined look about her. But before she had even thrown it...

"Cajuns," Logan's voice cut through the cheering and the two turned their heads his way. He strode over, stopping a meter from Remy, but looking at Tammi. "We need you inside."

"What?" Remy asked, putting the card he had in his hand away and walking over to the Canadian man. "Why?"

"Your mother's here," was all Logan said. The moment those words left his mouth, there was a loud explosion behind them, and they both jerked around to see Tammi standing there with a scared look on her face, the ground not far in front of her charred from where she had haphazardly thrown her latest card.

"Tammi?" Remy asked tersely, with a cocked eyebrow. She walked slowly over to him, her head bowed.

"She's come to take me away, hasn't she?" she asked quietly, though there was a certain note of bitterness in her voice as well. Remy took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly while trying to control his anger enough so as not to accidentally break her fingers; he was fighting the urge to clench his hands into fists.

"Don't worry, Remy won't let 'er," He told her calmly, though his face was worried. "We'll have 'er on 'er way faster than she can blink, _petite_. No matter what she's got, she can't take you away." Tammi nodded and took a breath, forcing a smile onto her face and letting Remy lead her into the building.

* * *

Translations:

Etrange – strange

Je suis Tammi désolé – I'm sorry Tammi


	13. Bodyguard

**A note from Jinxeh**: Gah, I'm so angry at myself for the lack of updatingness for this story! I did have a bit of writer's block at first, so that did count for much of the delaying, but then I had half of the chapter written…and the Word document that it was on mysteriously disappeared from my computer, incidentally the same night that I was away from the house (opening night for _Pirates of the Caribbean 2_, so I couldn't miss it; awesome movie, and highly recommended, by the way) and left my laptop there. I'm highly under the suspicion that my brother (who is older than me by two years; he's 20) might have had something to do with that, but I can't prove anything. I apologize that this chapter is so freaking short—I had to type it all up again in just a couple of hours in order to get it to Toxic-Beetle, or else I would have had to wait another week…don't ask. I have a weird schedule. It's frustrating. But the chapter is here and posted now, so yay! Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 13: Bodyguard

It didn't seem to matter that Julianne LeBeau had a rather burly—and intimidating—police officer that was practically bursting out of his uniform along to accompany her; she wasn't allowed in the building, and that was the final word that Ororo Munroe would say about it. It didn't matter that Logan had told her to show them to the rec room; Ororo made her own ruling, and refused them access. Tommy, easily said, did not take too well to this; the menacing way that he cracked his knuckles and the harsh, muttered words rolling off the tip of his tongue were enough to alert Ororo to this.

But she did not waver, and she did not dare to leave. Ororo seemed content to stay and watch Julianne and Tommy from her standing perch in front of the double glass doors, as they stood beside the car they had arrived in on the driveway, right at the bottom of the front stone steps. She didn't say a word to either of them; only kept her eyes slightly narrowed, betraying her obvious wariness of the two strangers, and kept her arms crossed in front of herself, her feet firmly planted on the ground as though she was a stone statue.

"I told you…" Julianne muttered aloud, her eyes kept to the ground as though she found it fascinating. "I have the papers…it's legal, I swear it…"

Ororo, who had already heard this statement at least four or five times before and who was, by now, becoming very suspicious about its validity, did not reply. Not for the first time, she found herself wishing that Professor Xavier or Jean were there with her; she somehow felt as though the Xavier Institute had lost a sort of defense without a psychic there when needed. Briefly, she considered calling them away from their school board meeting…but that would mean she would have to leave both Julianne and Tommy alone and unsupervised outside, since her seldom-used cell phone was _inside_, and she was not entirely willing to do that. She didn't trust them to be alone anywhere on the mansion's grounds, especially since there were other mutant children about.

"Why are you doing this?" Ororo finally could not help herself; she had to address this woman, though she kept her eyes firmly averted from the mammoth of a police officer that she had traveled with. Julianne, surprised that the other woman had finally spoken to her, looked up with started eyes behind her rounded sunglasses. For a moment, she felt rather affronted—what right did this woman have to question her motives?

But no…that was the old Julianne LeBeau coming forth again; the begrudging wife of Jean-Luc LeBeau, the prominent member of the Thieve's Guild…she had once commanded respect from others and had berated anyone that would speak to her with such a tone. Now, she felt foul and unclean, and there was nothing left inside of her to command much of anything while still meaning it. She wasn't that same woman anymore, and it pained her to have to admit that.

"Tammi is my daughter," said Julianne laboriously. She wasn't quite able to fight the irritation out of her voice when she spoke, either, and Ororo seemed to stiffen slightly upon recognizing it. "If I want to have her back, then that decision is up to me, and you have no right to question it."

For a small moment, she felt almost proud of herself for her answer, but then that feeling was gone when the dark-skinned woman sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head slowly back and forth. When she opened her eyes again, there was only sadness in them, though the grim frown on her face suggested hostility, still.

"From what I have managed to gather, you never tried to retrieve any of your children before," said Ororo, choosing her words carefully. "And now that you are…you are also too late. Remy is happy here; he has friends, and he has a home. And Tammi…she lives here knowing that her brother would be willing to risk his life for her—and he has—and she too is beginning to experience such a happiness. Why would you take that _away_ from her?"

Before she chose a response to this, Julianne paused for a moment when she realized that the explosions she and Tommy had been hearing ever since their arrival to the school—and seemed to have been coming from the backyard—had finally stopped. She knew very little of her son and daughter's mutations, but did know that they could cause explosions. If they had been the ones causing such noise, but then had so abruptly stopped, then perhaps they had already been informed of her arrival.

"It's none of your business, what I decide to do with my own child," said Julianne when she had regained her composure and had returned her gaze to the other woman. "And so I'll thank you to quit _asking_."

"But it _is_ my business!" Ororo persisted indefatigably. "I am an instructor here, therefore Tammi is one of my students. In a school such as this, we are all _family_…if I want to know what is going to happen to the girl, then I _should_ know." She was lying through her teeth, technically—she had never taught Tammi directly, and nor had the girl been present in any of the training sessions that had been conducted since her arrival…but perhaps that did not change the fact that she was still indeed a student. The lord knew that Remy had been helping the girl with her powers recently, so perhaps that counted…

"You all may be a family here because of your mutations…" said Julianne crisply, "But _we_ are family by _blood_. I daresay that counts for more, in this case…"

Tommy gave a sort of primal grunt, as though trying to agree with what she had said without using actual words. Unfortunately, it did nothing whatsoever to rival Logan's low-rumbling growl when he came around the side of the immense building when he had heard what Julianne had said. Obviously he had decided to take them the roundabout way to get to the front door and then to the rec room, as it was actually a shortcut—if he was surprised that Ororo hadn't taken their 'guests' into the rec room, he did not show it.

When Julianne turned to look at the rather hairy—and also somewhat scary—mutant man, it was with minimal relief that she saw he was with Remy, and with Tammi following right behind him. Tammi seemed to have her brother's arm in a death grip; she clutched tightly at his arm as though it was her only lifeline, and she walked right behind him like he was her own personal shield. Then again, perhaps he was…

"What you want?" asked Remy flatly when he came to a stop a good ten feet away from the front of the car, whereas Logan walked right up to the steps and leaned back against the stone and brick railing, scowling deeply at Julianne and her well-built bodyguard of sorts. "Ain't you caused enough trouble 'round here for one week?"

"I'm a LeBeau, even though it may just be through marriage," said Julianne with a very weak smile towards her son. "You of all people should know that we do not give up easily."

"Don' even try pretendin' like you _anyt'ing_ like a LeBeau," muttered Remy icily. "You be makin' Jean-Luc look like a _saint_."

If his words stung her at all, she didn't let on. Instead, she had yet another weak smile to offer him even as she gave the slightly scrunched papers she had been holding to Tommy, who, in return, walked up to Remy (or lurched up to him, actually) and practically shoved them into his free hand.

"What's this?" Remy demanded, peering down at the impossibly small print on the top paper as his dark eyes went back and forth over the page, trying to read and understand it. Wordlessly, Logan joined him and glared down at the papers with narrowed eyes, muttering the words under his breath that he was presently reading.

"…_do decree…in the event of the participant's death_…who's that, your dad, Cajun?..._all guardianship goes to_…oh _hell_, this is a bunch a' bull," he snorted, looking up and away from the papers and glaring vehemently at Julianne LeBeau. "What crackpot court in the country woulda given _you_ guardianship of the kid you abandoned in the _first_ place?"

"But Tammi don't wanna _go_ wit' her!" Tammi all-but-shrieked when she realized what was being said. Right then, she would have been willing to give up almost anything in exchange for her sight back, just so she could read whatever was in the paper that Remy was holding in his shaking hand. She could feel his other arm shaking under her firm grip as well, but knew better than to think that he was frightened. Oh no, he most certainly was not scared—he was _angry_. "Don't _I_ get a say in any a' dis?"

"Dis is America, de land of opportunity, Tammi," Remy mumbled under his breath, his eyes still scanning the papers in the hopes of finding some sort of loophole to this whole thing. "Unless you be under eighteen—den you pretty much get screwed no matter _what_ you want to do."

"Oh yeah. Forgot dat part…"

"Tammi, don't you _want_ to come with me?" asked Julianne in a pleading tone of voice. "I'm your mother! We haven't seen each other in so _long_…"

"And whose fault is _dat_?"

"Er…"

"Those papers have been validated." Tommy finally chose to speak, his voice nothing but a low rumble with a bad and incredibly tacky tough-guy attitude laced into it. "They say that Mrs. LeBeau 'ere gets 'er kid, and there ain't nothin' that any of you are gonna be able to do about it. You," he snapped his fingers towards Tammi, who did nothing but look in his direction in complete bemusement. "Get in the car."

"Huh? Who's talkin'?" asked Tammi, obviously confused. "Who _else_ is here?"

"She be _blind_, idiot," Remy snapped, glaring at Tommy and clenching his fists together threateningly. "You can't just order 'er to do t'ings like dat! Speakin' a' which…you can't be orderin' 'er to do t'ings at _all_!" He almost spat these last words, and let the papers drop to the grassy ground right in front of him. If he would have cared to waste the time and effort, he would have stomped upon them and torn them to pieces.

"Watch who you're talking to, _boy_," Tommy snarled, speaking the word 'boy' as though it was something foul upon the tip of his tongue. He pointed clumsily to the gleaming—fake—badge that was clipped upon his uniform, and nodded his head smugly. "I can take you in just as easily as her. Now girl—_get in the car_!"

"Bub, you best stop talkin' like that or else somethin' _unpleasant's_ gonna happen," growled Logan warningly, taking a step towards Tommy as the three blades in his left hand deftly slid out of his knuckles, gleaming in the bright light of the afternoon sun. "I don't care what kinda papers you got or if you happen ta' have a piece a' metal stapled to your chest or not—you and the broad _ain't_ gettin' the kid, so you'd do good to just _leave_."

Throughout all of this, no one seemed to have taken notice of the fact that Rogue had somehow managed to sneak into the scene—at least, no one did until Remy noticed the gloved hand that suddenly found its way into his own, and he looked over his shoulder to find a pair of darkly-outlined and concerned green eyes staring back at him. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and nodded to her, but other than that gave no sign that he even knew that she was there. He looked to Tammi next; shaking, pale Tammi, who, although she was not able to control her trembling, seemed to at least be attempting to _look_ brave, and even uncaring of the current situation.

"I have the power of the law on my side this time!" declared Julianne LeBeau swiftly, though not even she was able to fight the tremor from her voice. Like mother like daughter, in that small comparison of how they each had their own ways of given away what they were really feeling, no matter if they were trying their best to hide it. "I have even brought a police guard with me! I have the papers—even if they are on the _ground_ right now—and so there is nothing you can do to stop me! What do I have to do, bring a swat team here in order to get my child back?"

"You can't get back what you never had in de first place," Remy snapped irritably. "_You_ left _us_—both of us. Now you gotta live wit' it. C'mon," he muttered, turning and beginning to walk towards the steps, Tammi having little choice but to follow since she seemed unable to let go of his arm. Rogue went willingly, allowing herself to be led by his hand, which still loosely held her own.

"Hey!" Tommy's indignant shout pierced through the air less than a second before Tammi shrieked, and was rather violently pulled away from her brother's arm, causing both Remy and Rogue to get pulled back as well, and nearly stumble. In an instant, however, and without even casting a glance behind him to see if his guess was correct, Remy understood what had happened. Tammi had just been pulled right away from him.

He didn't like that.

Even as the hearty _snikt_ sound of Logan's other claws bursting through the knuckles of his right hand reached his ears, Remy had snarled and already produced a small stack of cards from his trench coat, spinning around on his heels and letting go of Rogue's hand all in one instant so he could grab one card alone in which to hurl at the man.

"No!" Julianne shrieked at about the same time that Ororo gasped in shock and began to run down the steps, watching as Tommy pulled her daughter back and then let go so that she fairly slammed back against the side of the vehicle and then slid down to the ground in a daze, as though she was some sort of cartoon character…only this was much less humorous. "Tommy, Remy—_stop it_!"

Julianne was not shouting out of worry for her children—what with the deal that she had with Mr. Kirsch about the trading of her daughter for her own life, it didn't seem very likely that she would be too worried about any of this—but rather because she was deathly afraid that Tommy would blow her cover. She was not naive enough to think that anyone and everyone who was a cop wasn't crooked, but having a police officer willing to slam a young girl against the side of a car just to get control over her wasn't something that most honest policemen would do.

"_Bastard_!" seemed to be the only legible word that Remy could come up with in order to sum up what he was feeling at the moment, and it was what he shouted when he lunged at Tommy, a lit and sparking card in his hand that he prepared to throw—and it was the same word that he mumbled blearily and weakly under his breath as he slumped down to the ground and onto his metal-tipped knees, clutching at the stomach that Tommy had just delivered an almost bone-crushing punch to.

"Remy!" Rogue gasped and was at his side in an instant—and maybe a little too quickly, in Logan's opinion—crouching next to him, a hand on his back and the other on his chest to support him as he wheezed. Ororo looked, for once, as if she wasn't sure what to do; she had expected slight confrontation, of course, but _this_…?

Logan, unfortunately, was forced to stop in his tracks since Remy was now blocking his way, and instead he stood there behind him, glaring daggers at an obviously not impressed Tommy and with his claws showing no sign of disappearing into his knuckles once more. Tammi had already risen to her feet, and although her trembling seemed to have increased threefold and she was breathing in ragged breaths, she appeared to be unharmed, though frightened.

She wasn't like her brother, and that was something that suddenly struck Logan as though he had been hit in the head by a bucket filled with rocks—he looked at her for a small second before returning his narrowed eyes to Tommy, and even for that diminutive amount of time, the differences between them were striking. He'd heard the stories from Remy, as short and blunt as they were, and knew that when she was younger she had been as raring for a fight as Remy. But with her blindness, there seemed to have come something else; a sort of apprehension to learn new things, or take any risks that might put her in even a considerably small amount of danger. She had basically reverted back to being a defenseless child, mutation or no mutation.

Letting Julianne LeBeau take a child—namely this child—could be dangerous; Julianne didn't seem like much of a satisfactory mother, and who knew her real reasons for wanting her daughter back? It could be dangerous for Tammi, and he would be _damned_ if he was going to let a kid from the Institute be put in any sort of danger like that.

"You don't wanna be doin' that, now," said Tommy threateningly, cracking his knuckles together again as he glared down at Logan. "Assaultin' a police officer? Let me tell yah—it won't end _well_ for you."

"You _started_ it…" He thought he heard Tammi mutter something from behind him, but wisely chose to ignore this. Meanwhile, Julianne was taking advantage of the situation and had sidled up next to Tammi and had grabbed her arm, attempting to steer her towards the back door of the shiny black vehicle. Unfortunately, she happened to have a tight grip on Tammi's injured arm, and so the girl's shriek startled her enough for her to let go.

"Tammi ain't goin' wit' you, I already said!" Tammi spat, then spinning around on her heels and looking in the direction that she thought she had last heard Remy. "Remy? You okay? _Remy_?"

"It don't matter what _you_ want, kid," Tommy growled, fairly much snatching the girl up and slinging her over his shoulder as though she was nothing but a shapeless sack of potatoes, all the while ignoring her shrieks of surprise and anger. "You're underaged and I'm an authority accordin' to _law_. You're comin' with us whether you like it or not!"

Julianne already had the back door to the car open and ready, and so it was to that that he headed—unfortunately, though, Logan was too quick for him, and he soon found his path barred by a very irate-looking man with adamantium claws poking out from his knuckles.

"Put the kid _down_, bub!" Logan growled in an almost feral tone, taking a step forward, each of his words practically dripping with the anger that he wasn't even trying to hide. Involuntarily, Tommy stepped back, more so he could get away from those shiny metal claws than anything—compared to him, Logan seemed like a rather small man, and so besides those claws he really had little that he could have been afraid of.

"Logan, don't!" said Ororo, quickly stepping forward and putting a hand on his shoulder, trying to ignore the fact that Tammi was cursing under her breath and kicking for all she was worth over Tommy's shoulder. "I hate to say it…but she has the papers…he _is_ a police officer…"

"_So_?" Logan snapped. "Look at how they're handlin' 'er _now_! You wanna let her _go_ with 'em?"

"No!" Remy finally managed to croak out a single word when the pain in his middle began to subside, and with Rogue's help—she never took her hands off of his arm—he stood up, swaying slightly but not losing his balance. "Remy…R-Remy won't let you take 'er…you were a _horrible_ ma' an'…an I know you won't take _care_ a' her…"

"It doesn't matter, Remy," said Julianne stiffly, not letting him realize that his words had stung her. "Your…teacher…or whoever she is, is absolutely correct. There is _nothing_ you can do to stop me."

It was about at this point that Tammi chose to let loose a steady stream of highly offensive curse words, none of which shall be repeated here, and did the only thing she could think of doing—which was, in this case, biting Tommy's shoulder. With a snarl and a yelp, he lost his grip on her and she fell down, but luckily landed roughly on her knees, and was able to scramble away, following Remy's voice as he shouted her name.

"_Stupid_ little—" Tommy had started to snarl again, but another advancing step on Logan's behalf was enough to silence him. Tammi was able to reach Remy without incident, and despite his own weariness, he caught her with one of his arm and pulled her to him; she was all too happy to sigh and cling to his side as though nothing but a small, frightened child.

"Please _listen_—I don't want to have to call for more backup!" Julianne warned her children shrilly, her lips pursed and her hands on her hips. For some reason, the vision of seeing her daughter clinging to her son like that was quite disturbing—Tammi had never been a very clingy girl, all in all, even when she was barely a toddler. She had never shown her own father that much affection, at least not that _she_ could remember. What right did Remy have to be so close to her?

"Just leave," was Remy's simple, tired reply. "I won't let you take Tammi away, so just leave…"

"Remy…" Ororo almost bit her tongue, but forced herself to speak. "I don't want Tammi to be taken away either…but to get more police involved in this…they could charge it as a kidnapping if they wanted to…"

"So what you want me to do?" he asked snappily. "Let them take 'er?"

No one answered him at first, even Logan; the warning look that Ororo was sending his way just made him scowl and cross his arms, only temporarily sliding his claws back into his knuckles. Remy's eyes widened.

"You _do_ want me to let 'em take 'er? What the hell is _wrong_ wit' you people?"

"You see?" asked Julianne, softly but smugly. "Even they know there's no use in denying me this. Now come _here_, Tammi, so we can go!"

"We can get 'er back, Cajun," Logan growled, glaring at Tommy as though positively _daring_ him to say something. "We'll go to court—_something_. Xavier's a pretty influential guy; he won't let 'em get away with it."

"But who knows what this lunatic'll do to 'er in the meantime!" Remy exclaimed, waving a hand at his now highly offended mother. He had called her many names before, usually under his breath or in his head whenever he thought of her, but 'lunatic' had never been one of them, until now. "She could _hurt_ 'er!"

"I would never hurt my own child!" Technically not a lie; she wouldn't be doing Tammi any harm, at least not directly. Still…the thought sent shivers down her spine, even when she was just thinking about it…

"Remy, I don' wanna cause no trouble…" Tammi's voice was weak, but it was still there. He looked down at her in astonishment, not being able to see her blank eyes past her clunky sunglasses, but able to imagine the fear that would be written there all the same.

"This is _bull_!" Rogue fumed, but her exclamation was lost to Remy, who by now had already made a decision in his head—a rather hasty one, admittedly, but he had to stick to it. He didn't trust his mother, and he wouldn't leave Tammi with her; he just _couldn't_.

"Fine," he finally said hollowly, not exactly enjoying the way that his sister's grip upon him grew even tighter, or how he heard her intake a sharp breath in terror. "You take 'er. But I _ain't_ leavin' you alone with 'er. If you wanna take Tammi…you gotta take me wit' you too."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was not something that Remy LeBeau had really expected his mother to agree with, but surprisingly enough she did—she hesitated about it, of course, but when it became apparent that he was not going to let her take the child away without his own presence, she had relented. What choice did she have? His friends, and the other mutants that he lived with had been less than thrilled as well, but they too had not been able to stop him. The girl with the brown and white hair had even tried to go _with_ them, but Remy had refused to allow it.

Now, it was nothing short of uncomfortable in the car that was traveling leisurely down the semi-country road towards the city, where Julianne had claimed she was staying. Remy had refused point-blank to sit in the same part of the car with her, his mother, and so she had no choice but to sit up front and drive, just as she had when she had first gone through the Mansion's gates; she had wanted to sit in back and talk with her daughter and let Tommy drive, but it just wasn't to be. Instead, Tommy sat up front with her, also at Remy's insistence, leaving the young Cajun man and his sister alone in the back.

"Remy…" Tammi was still shaking visibly, and seemed unable to remove her small, pale hands from the sleeve of his trench coat. As he leaned back in his seat, his lips pulled into a grim frown and his dark eyes gazing out the windows as he watched the scenery fly by, he made a small sound under his breath so she knew he was listening. "Remy, what gonna happen to us?"

"Absolutely nothin'," he answered breezily, then sighing and looking down at her. "Remy come wit' you and make sure dat our psycho ma' don't kill you, and we wait for Xavier to take it to court, or do _whatever_ he's supposed to. Don't worry 'bout it, _petite_—ain't _nothin'_ gonna happen to us."

The car itself was sleek and expensive-looking, and the inside was no different. There was a tinted black glass divider between the front and back part of the car, which could be lowered down or brought up just by the flick of a switch on the front panel. At the moment, the divider was up. This had been at Tommy's insistence; it was sound-proof glass, so he and Julianne LeBeau could talk.

"What are we going to do now?" Julianne whispered fearfully, making the car come to a slow stop at a red stoplight, and nervously looking into the rearview mirror in a vain effort to see into the back of the car where her two children were sitting. Because of the tinting of the glass, she could barely see anything but their outlines. They were sitting close together; Tammi was still too terrified to be very far away from her older brother at the moment. "Remy's powerful—I _know_ he is, I've heard the stories…"

"Don't worry 'bout it," said Tommy almost uncaringly, pulling back the front of his jacket just a bit in order to see that the gun was still there, at his hip. "He ain't gonna be a problem."

"Remy loves his little sister," mumbled Julianne despairingly. There was really no need for her to talk so quietly; they wouldn't have been able to hear her anyway because of the glass, but she was a little paranoid. That, and her stomach kept flipping up and down as though it was filled with millions of tiny, creepy-crawly little insects. She thought of what she was about to do, and what she was about to do to her _daughter_, and she shuddered uncontrollably… "He'll protect her. I know he will."

Someone that didn't know any better might have sworn that there was a hint of pride in her voice when she said this. Luckily, Tommy didn't seem to notice. Instead, he snorted, rolling his eyes and admiring the gun that now lay in his lap.

"Don't worry," he said again, now grinning despite himself. "He'll be easy enough to handle. Just get us into the city and get your part of the deal done…_I'll_ take care of Remy LeBeau."


	14. The Hotel

A/N: My turn to apologise for the tardiness of this chapter. I have no real excuses, other than my own laziness and the typical case of writers block. It's here now though, enjoy!

Chapter 14: The Hotel  


The car slowed to a stop, and Remy turned away from his sleeping sister to glance out the window. They were outside a very high-class looking hotel, and Remy almost snorted at the fact that this was very much like his mother. The glass divider lowered, and Julianne looked back nervously.

"We staying 'ere?" Remy asked, raising an eyebrow as he turned to her. "A 'otel?"

"Yes," Julianne said, "so wake your sister up, and get out the car." She twisted her head to look at the girl, who was leaning against Remy with her mouth open and her eyes-half closed, which she could see when her glasses slipped down. The milky white gaze of the girl made the woman shiver, and she let the divider rise again.

Remy sighed, and pushed his sister from his shoulder before shaking her awake. She woke swiftly, and twisted her head in the direction she knew him to be.

"Was goin' on?" she asked swiftly, then yawning. "Are we there?"

"'Apparently," Remy replied, grasping her hand as he opened the door. "Come on, and watch de curb." He stepped out onto the sidewalk, and Tammi stumbled out, and clutched his hand tightly as she stood quivering. Remy frowned, taking in the sight of this strange, rather scrawny girl, and couldn't help the fact that his frown darkened.

She was only fifteen years old…he didn't really notice it before, but she was still a child, wasn't she? Being blind wasn't always a problem for her, but it had slowed her progression in terms of maturity—she'd lost her nerve early on, and that didn't help. It just reminded him that many of the kids at the Institute were just that: kids. After all they'd been through, he just tended to think of them as being a little older than they were…

"Come on children!" Julianne said brightly as she stepped from the car; she was putting forth a strong, sure façade, though Remy could see her face was still pale, and she looked nervously around at the people walking past them. One or two people cast a glance towards Remy and his odd choice of clothing, or the hulking mammoth that was Tommy, who was still in the car, but no one said anything.

"Why is 'e comin' too?" Remy growled as Tommy also exited the car. "You already got us 'ere, _non_? Why we need him around anymore?"

"I'll leave, you'll run," the man rumbled. "I'm staying until I'm assured that neither of you will run from your mother. No matter _how_ long that takes." He leveled them both with a glare, though only Remy returned it; Tammi still stood at his side, her head turned in the general direction that Tommy's voice had come from, and a slight scowl on her face.

"Like Tammi would be _able_ to run without Remy…" she muttered under her breath. He was the only one that heard this, and gently squeezed her hand in reassurance. "I'd probably fall into a pool and drown…"

"Remy, Tammi," Julianne called, and Remy tore his glower from the cop to jerk his head around in the direction of his mother. She was standing only a few feet away, her hand leaving that of a parking attendant, and she beckoned her two children forward.

Remy looked ready to refuse, but Tommy stepped forward and he urged himself to walk, preferring to keep as much distance between his sister and the Neanderthal of a cop as was possible.

"Remy?" Tammi questioned, stumbling as her brother unexpectedly started forward, but following him closely, afraid they would become separated. "Where are we?"

"A 'otel, like I said," Remy replied shortly. "Remy thinks our dear mother doesn't want to see us try an' run, and she's got a better chance of keeping a close eye on us if we stay 'ere."

"An' de cop?" Tammi asked, they were entering the hotel now, and she clutched tighter to his hand.

"Staying with us, for de time being," Remy replied. "Thinks we're gonna run." He smirked at the thought and paused just inside the hotel to turn and look at his sister. "Remy will look after you, 'kay?" Tammi hesitated, but nodded, and a slight smile spread across her face. It was an uncomfortable sort of moment for Remy; he was glad to see a bit of bravery on the girl's face, though also a little unsettled that he was the one to put it there. He'd been estranged from his family for so long, and now…he still wasn't entirely used to playing the role of big brother again, though he was trying his best.

"Remy look after Tammi," she stated, "and Tammi look after Remy."

Remy laughed at this, hugging Tammi swiftly—another uncomfortable moment, and yet one that seemed appropriate—before a shrill voice took their attention elsewhere.

"Come _on_ children!" Remy groaned at the sound of his mother's voice, and turned to see her standing at the reception desk, staring over at them and beckoning them forward with her hand. Remy released Tammi with another groan, and led her over to their mother.

"Remy, here's your room key," Julianne said brightly, as she walked away from the desk, and she handed her son a key attached to a green tag. "Tammi, come with me, I'll take you to your room." She reached out and grasped Tammi's hand, only for the young mutant to then snatch it back with an angry sound that harshly resembled a growl that would have made Logan proud.

"You ain't allowed t'touch me," she spat, burying her hand into her trench coat pocket. "_Remy_ can show me my room," she added darkly. Remy allowed himself a small smile at his mother's indignant look, and pulled the key from his mother's limp grasp, examining the numbers on both before staring back at her with fierce eyes.

"Dese are on different floors," he stated bluntly. Julianne hesitated, but nodded.

"It's easier for me, that way," she said quietly. "Tommy will be in the room beside yours, I'll be beside Tammi. I would gladly just share a room with her, but didn't think…" Remy narrowed his eyes, and then strode swiftly past his mother, dragging Tammi along beside him. Being dragged didn't seem to be much of a problem for Tammi, however, as she went willingly.

"Remy—" Julianne called out, but the mutant had already pulled his sister into an elevator, and the doors dinged shut as the word left his mothers' lips.

"They won't leave this way, Mrs. LeBeau," Tommy promised. "The staff is paid, and will keep an eye out, in case either of your children tries to leave through any of the doors." He paused here to jerk his head towards the revolving doors that led to the sidewalk. "Security will stop them, otherwise." Julianne nodded at this, and managed a small, though strained smile, wondering when everything would calm down.

X

Tammi sat on her bed in the hotel room, staring silently forward as she waited impatiently for her mother. Not long after Remy had led her up into the room, Julianne had entered with Tommy and ordered Remy out, she had also told her daughter that she would return shortly before snapping the door closed once more. It wouldn't have shocked Tammi if she'd locked the door, but she hadn't bothered to check just yet; there wasn't much use in it. Now, Tammi now sat in boredom, waiting on the bed—which she had only found after falling over a chair—and now refused to move in case she tripped again.

There was a noise, and Tammi raised her head and turned towards the door. The sound came again, and then Tammi realized that the noise was not coming from the door, and she turned her head in the right direction.

"Ello?" she called out in slight confusion. Was there another door leading into the room that she didn't know about?

"Tammi?" Remy's voice called back, muffled by the glass of the window that he was at. "Can you open de window for Remy?"

"_Non_, Tammi _can't_," the girl growled, though she stood and slowly stumbled forward. "Where de hell is it?" she called out.

"Two steps left and straight in front of you," Remy replied, and Tammi obeyed the order, hands before her until her fingers made contact with the glass, leaving her to fumble with the lock of the window.

"Slide it up," Remy told her. The window shifted easily, and she sidestepped to allow Remy in.

"How de 'ell did you get _out_ dere?" she asked in confusion. In her head, she had a strange mental image of him hanging outside the window as he clutched to a rope, or something of the sort. It was a rather twisted vision, as she wasn't entirely sure what he looked like now that he was older, and nor did she know what the hotel looked like. Remy cocked an eyebrow.

"Room above has a balcony, and Remy be a t'ief, remember?"

"_Non_, must have slipped my mind," Tammi muttered, making her way back over to the bed as Remy wandered around the room.

"Why you here?" Tammi asked into the silence, straining to hear where her brother currently was. Silently, she was hoping that his answer would follow the lines of him explaining an escape plan to her.

"'Cause," the voice came from right next to her ear, and she jumped. "Remy doesn't trust our _mere_."

"Can't say Tammi does either," the girl replied, the bed shifted as Remy sat beside her. "But Professor Xavier get us out of dis, _non_?"

"Remy hopes so," Remy replied, and Tammi caught the worry in his voice. "Remy don't wanna see what happens if he don't." His head snapped up, and his eyes narrowed beneath the sunglasses.

"Remy?" Tammi asked in the second sudden silence.

"Hush," he hissed, "someone's coming." The bed shifted again, and she heard him run away from the bed, no doubt to find a hiding place in case it was their mother.

A loud knock on the door almost made her jump from the bed again, and she cursed the fact that she was so jumpy and edgy right now.

"Tammi?" Julianne's voice called through, and Tammi fought back the urge to growl again. "Tammi, you in there?"

"_Non_!" Tammi shouted, "Tammi's not in _here_. Dis just be a recorded message!" She swore she heard someone snicker behind her, but pushed the thought back as the door opened, and closed again with a _click_.

"Tammi," Julianne started, crossing the room and sitting on the bed. Tammi edged away, fingers tightening onto the bedspread.

"What do you want?" she asked, eyes narrowing at the woman even though she couldn't see her.

"Tammi," Julianne repeated, her own fingers playing nervously with the bedspread. "I just wanted to say beforehand…I'm sorry."

"For what?" Tammi snorted "My being blind? You leaving me and Remy before? Kidnapping us?" She felt a bit like a brat, but given the current situation, it seemed likely that her harsh words were completely justified.

"I didn't kidnap you," Julianne said nervously. Her gaze traveled to the girl's blank eyes at her words, which were once again visible because of the too-large glasses slipping down her nose, and she shivered. "I just want you back."

"I didn't _want_ to be back," Tammi replied hotly. "I was happy dere with Remy. And if you wanted me back, why couldn't you take Remy too? He had to fight 'is way into dis little _adventure!_" she spoke in scorn, and threw her arms up in exasperation.

"Tammi please!" Julianne hissed, "Remy's old enough to live on his _own_, if he wants. You still a child, and you need a home. You need your _mere,_ still!"

"I don't need _you_. I've lived most of my life without _you_," Tammi snapped. "Da' wasn't de best role model, or anything, but at least he was there…sometimes…" She frowned, and then shook her head, shoving her conflicting thoughts out of her head. "Just…get out!"

Julianne went to reply, but she saw Tammi's angry gaze, and slipped from the room when she realized that there was nothing else that could be said. Before she stepped into the hallway, she let her eyes sweep to the angry, and yet sad-looking girl for a moment before she left completely. There was a length of silence after the door had closed, and then Tammi crumpled onto the bed, her shaking hands covering her face and her terrified front coming up now that she didn't have to act brave in front of her mother. An arm wrapped around her shoulders, and she turned to bury her head into the shoulder of Remy.

"Hush, _mon petit soeur_." He whispered. "What be de matter? Wicked bitch o' New Orleans get t'you?"

"She make me so _angry_, Remy," Tammi whispered angrily. "What we gonna do? Tammi can't stay here 'til Xavier sorts everything out? What if he can't win?"

"Hush," Remy repeated, pulling her away from him and eyeing her grimly. "Remy don't trust our _mere_, and he certainly don't trust dat policeman Tommy." He stood, tugging at her hand until she stood too.

"Where we going?" Tammi asked, as he pulled her behind him. They paused, and her bag was pushed into her hands "Remy? Where we going?" Now she just sounded suspicious. Remy was her older brother, and of course she loved and trusted him, but she also knew of his penchant to take dangerous risks, and part of that frightened her…

"Remy's getting us out of 'ere Tammi," he replied, walking them both over to the window and pulling it open. "Hmm…you not to averse to goin' out de window, are you?"

"What?" Tammi squeaked. "De _window?_ You crazy?"

"You've done it before," said Remy mischievously.

"Oui, but dere was a pool outside and dere was no other choice!" Tammi argued. "What's outside dis one?"

"Umm…" Remy chanced a look outside. "Pavement?" They both froze at hurried footsteps outside the room, and the door burst open. "And Remy don't think dere be any other choice," he said grimly, pushing Tammi closer to the window and further away from Tommy.

"You're not going anywhere," he snarled at them. "Kirsch wants to see you."

"And who be dis Kirsch?" Remy drawled, edging Tammi even further back. She hit the wall, and her fingers wandered until they found the cool glass of the window.

"Don't even think about it," Tommy growled, one hand going to his gun. Remy's hand went into his pocket, pulling out a pack of cards, and Tammi, hearing the threat in the man's voice, dropped her bag to pull out two of her own cards; she had them left over from the training session at the Mansion, though they would most likely be useless to her now. Throwing them and hitting targets in a calm, secluded environment was one thing, but this…well, this was quite another.

"You let Tammi and Remy go now," Remy ordered, "and we'll give you no trouble, 'right?"

"Mm…no," Tommy replied, pulling his gun out and training it on Remy.

Translations:

_Mere_ – mother.

_Mon petit soeur_ – my little sister.


End file.
